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Presidential bill is top priority of the House
National News - September 11, 2000
JAKARTA (JP): Perturbed by the slew of scandals that have hit the
President, legislators are speeding up their initiative in drafting a
bill which would act as a code of conduct for the head of state.
House of Representatives legislation body chairman Zein Badjeber said
the bill would regulate, among other things, the amount of gifts which
could be accepted by a president and procedures for installing
ministers.
"We hope to submit the bill next month as part of the initiative of
the House," Zein, who is also a senior legislator of the United
Development Party (PPP), said on Friday.
He said the bill, which began life in the days of former president
B.J. Habibie, was now at the House's secretariat.
An expert team is due to examine the bill in the coming weeks.
He said the team would consist of experts from various top
universities, such as constitutional law experts, political scientists
and legal drafters.
"We just suggested the criteria for the experts to the secretariat
without mentioning their names," Zein, a retired judge, added.
He said the bill was one of three -- a bill on small credit and loans,
along with a bill on the procedures of drafting a bill -- which was
scheduled to be completed by the legislation body before the end of
this year.
Zein remarked that the presidential bill was urgent since other high
state institutions, such as the House and the Supreme Court, all have
such laws.
He refuted suggestions that the bill would diminish presidential
prerogative.
"Even in the United States, which applies a pure presidential system,
the installment of the defense secretary and attorney general is
discussed in the Congress," he contended.
Zein, who first sat as a legislator in 1966 for the Nahdlatul Ulama
Party, said that if the bill was approved, the president would have to
consult with the House when appointing ministers.
He further contended that House approval was also necessary as it
would be the House which would later approve the ministry's budgets
through the state budget.
Golkar Party legislator Slamet Effendy Yusuf stressed that the bill
should not be misperceived as an effort to "jail" the president's
movements.
"The bill should be viewed as an effort which will be useful for a
long time, whoever the country's president is," Slamet, who is also
deputy speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly's Ad Hoc I
committee on constitutional amendments, said.
He added that the Golkar Party and other factions also had their own
version of the presidential bill which could later, if needed, be
merged with the one already at the secretariat.
Slamet, who is Golkar's deputy chairman, said one of the most
important aspects would be the specific monetary value of gifts the
chief executive received.
"If the amount is over US$100, for example, it should belong to the
state. So far, such things have never been stipulated in any
regulation," he remarked.
Slamet conceded that this initiative might be misconstrued by some as
a backlash to the Brunei scandal currently being investigated by the
House in which the President received a personal gift of $2 million
from the Sultan of Brunei.
"It's just a coincidence. But the momentum is high for the House to
suggest the bill," he remarked.
President Abdurrahman Wahid has maintained that the "personal"
donation was channeled to several non-governmental organizations to
aid humanitarian projects in Aceh, Maluku and Irian Jaya
provinces.(jun)
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