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House To Press For Second Wahid Censure
by Kazi Mahmood for IslamOnline
KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Indonesian Parliament on Wednesday was disappointed by a no-thrill response given by President Abdurrahman Wahid to counter claims he is involved in two major financial scandals.
The parliamentarians were unfazed by Wahid's statement that he did not accept the House of Representatives (DPR)'s first memorandum censuring him for his alleged involvement in the Buloggate and Bruneigate scandals.
The head of state expressed his rejection in a written reply to the memorandum, read out by Justice and Human Rights Minister Baharuddin Lopa in the DPR's plenary session led by House Speaker Akbar Tandjung.
"I do not accept the content of the memorandum," said Wahid as reported by Antara news agency.
The legislators are presently pressing hard for a second memorandum, which Wahid states is not necessary after his response was heard. However, parliamentarians from several parties said they did not see or hear anything new in Wahid's official response.
House of Representatives (DPR) deputy speaker, A.M. Fatwa, called Wahid's response to the House memorandum a mere conventionality, saying the House would not stop plans to issue the second memorandum or affect the Central Axis Force's plan to issue the second warning.
The Central Axis Force, a coalition of three political parties formed by opposition leader Amien Rais, catapulted Wahid to the presidency, but has lately been highly critical of his government's performance.
Legislators reminded Wahid on Wednesday that the House memorandum was not a questioning, but a warning to the president to improve his administration. Thus, it did not need an answer.
"However, instead of making progress, President Wahid issued statements that showed his disobedience to the House," Fatwa commented.
Wahid, however, extended his apologies to members of the DPR if they saw him as being uncooperative in the investigation of his alleged involvement in the two financial scandals.
"During this occasion, I want to apologize if ever my attitude was unpleasant," the president said in his written response to the memorandum.
However, the president said there is still an opportunity for the two scandals to be settled in court and is ready to follow legal procedures in settling the case.
The House special committee investigating the two scandals concluded that the president was involved in them, prompting the legislators to send the memorandum that ordered the president to improve his administration's performance in three months.
Failure to do so could lead to the sending of the second memorandum, which could further lead to the president's impeachment.
At the end of his response, Wahid called on the nation to end conflicts among members of society.
"We have to strengthen our unity. We have to be united to maintain the Pancasila [Indonesian constitution] as the state ideology," he said.
Legislators, however, were united in saying that the president had yet to give a concrete answer to the initial censure, saying the response he gave was merely self-defense. They called his answer to their queries predictable.
"His answer was predictable. For the Brunei scandal, he would say this, and for the Bulog scandal, he would say that," a parliamentarian said.
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