Jakarta – Hundreds of university students protested at the Indonesian national parliament here on Tuesday, calling on the government to scrap a planned session of the upper house, the first in the post-Suharto era.

Witnesses said around 300 students from several Jakarta universities demonstrated to demand a transitional government and the dissolution of the country's legislative body.

Indonesian President B.J. Habibie, who succeeded Suharto in May, has worked to organise a session of the nation's highest legislative body, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), on November 10 to clear the way for fresh elections in May 1999.

The students argued that a large part of the current MPR's membership were Suharto appointees and therefore the institution could not be fair and impartial.

"The current regime is trying to give an impression that they are in line with the constitution, when it is actually trying to maintain its status quo," the students said in a statement. The protestors said the assembly session would only turn into political "theatre." Earlier student demonstrations at the parliament have called for either a fair MPR session or for the session to be scrapped.

In Tuesday's protest, the students also demanded that the ruling Golkar party make a public apology for putting the interests of Suharto's family and cronies above the interests of the people. Meanwhile, Golkar was wrapping up its three-day leadership meeting at the Jakarta Convention Centre, some 200 meters (yards) away from parliament, without making any apology for the party's past conduct.

[On October 24 the Jakarta Post reported that Petition 50 group has lashed out at Golkar over its refusal to apologise to the nation for its past conduct. At a media conference group leader Ali Sadikin said "Golkar's refusal to apologize was not only a display of its arrogance, it also demonstrates its reluctance to carry out substantial changes" - James Balowski.]