Jakarta – Megawati Sukarnoputri, a member of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia, yesterday did not comply with a summons by the South Jakarta District Police to be interrogated over the holding of a political meeting at her residence on Kebagusan Road in South Jakarta on 10 January.
She, however, sent Robert Ojahan Tambunan and 40 other legal counselors belonging to the Team for the Defense of Indonesian Democracy to meet police investigators.
"Megawati did not show up for the interrogation because she felt that the South Jakarta District Police's letter of summons did not clearly specify the name of the defendant in the case.
The police have, however, promised to specify the name of the defendant in their second letter of summons immediately," Tambunan, who represented Megawati, said after meeting a nine-member police investigation team.
About 60 Megawati supporters had waited at the South Jakarta District Police headquarters since 0900 West Indonesian Standard Time. They unfurled a number of banners, one of which read: "Megawati, Continue to Fight. We Will Not Take Part In The General Election Without You." They also sang the marching song of the Indonesian Democratic Party [PDI].
The Megawati supporters dispersed at about 1100 West Indonesian Standard Time because Megawati had failed to show up at the South Jakarta District Police headquarters. Tambunan said Megawati regarded as irrelevant the use of Article 6 in connection with Article 1 of Law No. 5/PNPS [Presidential Directive]/1963 [the Anti-Subversion Law] as a legal basis to brand the
10 January celebration of the PDI's 24th anniversary at her residence as a political meeting. "Law No. 5/PNPS/1963 was issued by the Old Order government on the basis of the Political Manifesto during the Guided Democracy era.
If the law continues to be applied, it will be a step backward in the development of democracy in Indonesia," Tambunan said. Megawati asked the president to sign a letter authorizing her interrogation. The current authorization letter was signed by Minister and State Secretary Murdiono. [passage omitted] In Surakarta, about 100 pro-Megawati PDI cadres stage a demonstration at the local police headquarters to protest a decision by the South Jakarta District Police to interrogate Megawati. The PDI cadres shouted pro-Megawati slogans.
Local police chief Police Colonel Sumardi met five representatives of the demonstrators and received a statement of the Surakarta District PDI Executive Council which essentially condemns the decision to interrogate Megawati Sukarnoputri and Taufik Kiemas [Megawati's husband].