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Indonesian Assembly to Hold Early Special Session
Indonesian People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Friday night decided to hold a special session from Saturday after the president installed General Chaeruddin Ismail as the Interim National Police chief.
MPR Chairman Amien Rais said earlier Friday that the decision by the president to replace Gen. S. Bimantoro with Chaeruddin without the approval of the House of Representatives was unconstitutional.
Speaking to reporters after a plenary meeting of eight factions of the MPR on Friday night, Rais said the special session will take place at 10:00 a.m. (03:00 GMT) on Saturday.
"This will be a very very significant and decisive political development of this country because I know people have been very anxious to see the holding of the special session," Rais was quoted by the Metro TV television station as saying.
He said the session will ask President Abdurrahman Wahid to account for his 21-month erratic rule on Monday.
"We'll give the president one day on Sunday to prepare his accountability speech. Meanwhile, tomorrow (Saturday), we'll convene to establish an agenda for the special session. I believe everything will be clear and of course we expected the president will attend the meeting on Monday to deliver his accountability speech. We want to be fair, we want to give ample time for Mr. President to reflect, to contemplate what he is going to explain to us in front of the members of the Assembly," he added.
When asked about the substance that the president should include in his accountability report, Rais said it should include the president's defense of his alleged involvement in the 35 billion rupiah (3.5 million U.S. dollars) scandal at the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), his accountability concerning a 2 million U.S. dollars personal donation from the sultan of Brunei as well as a report of his government's performance.
If Wahid's accountability speech is rejected by the MPR, he will have to resign and is likely be replaced by Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri.
The meeting of faction leaders on Friday night was attended by, among others, Ginandjar Kartasasmita of the Golkar Party faction, Hari Sabarno of the Indonesian Military/Police faction, Matori Abdul Djalil of the National Awakening Party faction and Soetjipto of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle faction.
This was the third special MPR session in the history of the country.
A special session of the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly was convened from March 7 to 12, 1967. The special session resolved to relieve former president Soekarno of his presidential duties and appointed Soeharto as acting president, pending the election of a new president by an elected MPR in 1968.
The second special MPR session was held from November 10-13, 1998, adopting 12 draft decrees aiming to accelerate the country's political reform process. The session decided to hold the general election in June 1999.
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