Indonesian Parliament Conveys Memorandum to President

Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) Thursday night eventually decided to convey a first memorandum to President Abdurrahman Wahid for his alleged involvement in two financial scandals.

Following a late night plenary session, the House found the president guilty of violating both his oath of office, as under Article 9 of the 1945 Constitution and People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Decree No. XI/1998 on the execution of a clean government, free of corruption, collusion and nepotism.

The House, which was unanimous in its decision, recommended that legal proceedings be conducted to follow up suspicions of legal violations in relation to the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) and Brunei Scandals.

However, it is unclear how legal proceedings would commence.

According to the Antara News Agency Friday, the final report of the plenary session said that a memorandum would be promptly submitted to the president "to remind him that he violated" state guidelines, namely the oath of office and the Assembly decree.

The late Thursday night session, while it lasted less than 10 minutes, was laden with political intrigue. It was postponed for more than an hour as House factions conducted intensive lobbying among themselves.

On Thursday afternoon, the House voted overwhelmingly by a vote 393 to four to accept the special committee's report on the two scandals allegedly involving the president.

The committee in its report alleged that President Wahid played a role in the withdrawal and disbursement of 35 billion rupiah (US$3.3 million) from the employees welfare fund of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog).

It also said the president has been inconsistent in giving explanations to the public on a US$2 million donation from the sultan of Brunei.

According to the Constitution, the memorandum serves notice to the president to respond within three months. If the notice is unheeded, the House can issue a second notice and give him another 30 days to act and if this notice is also ignored the House can ask the highest legislative body, the MPR, to call a special session to impeach the president.






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