Indonesian Assembly Ready With Scenario in Case President Stays Away From Special Session

An ad hoc committee of Indonesian People's Consultative Assembly (MPR)'s Working BigBody has prepared the scenario to be followed by the special MPR session in case President Abdurrahman Wahid stays away from the meeting, a spokesman said.

"If the president does not attend the session, the plenum will skip the agenda item reserved for the president's accountability speech and directly discuss the factions' general views," Rully Chairul Azwar, deputy chief of the MPR's Working BigBody, was quoted by the Antara News Agency Wednesday as saying.

He said the factions' general views would not touch on the president's accountability but the president's attitude in snubbing the special MPR session.

Asked about sanctions to be given by MPR if the president abandoned the session, Rully said in such a case, the MPR would have no choice but to revoke his mandate.

"We will not tolerate such an attitude," he said.

If the president was absent because of illness, the MPR would form an independent medical team to check his state of health.

"If the president is really sick, the MPR can continue its deliberations with the president being represented by other figures," he said.

The MPR, the country's highest law- and policy-making body, will hold a special session on August 1, asking for accountability from the president as he has been suspected to be involved in two graft scandals during his 19 months in office.

Wahid himself said that the special MPR session is unconstitutional, threatening not to attend the meeting.

Separately, Chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle faction in the Assembly Sophan Sophiaan said that the president had no other option than to account for his leadership.

"According to the constitution, the Assembly can call the president to account at any time. If the president were to defy such a request, I think it would mean that maybe he didn't understand the constitution," Sophan said after the party's weekly executive meeting here Tuesday.






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