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Confident Gus Dur regales MPs in top form

Source
Straits Times - August 17, 2000

Marianne Kearney Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid's pre-Independence Day address to Parliament yesterday began and ended with his trademark humour and, this time, legislators laughed with him, indicating that much of the tension between the two sides had dissipated.

The speech, that is given annually by the President ahead of Independence Day today, showed a much more confident and controlled President. In a speech that stressed religious and cultural tolerance, he had the legislators doubled over in laughter when he joked about cultural differences in Indonesia.

Without referring directly to the political manoeuvring that had taken place over the last fortnight, he joked that they should be wary of Javanese and Sundanese political culture because Javanese and Sundanese people appeared generous on the surface but were scheming behind the scenes.

He also signalled that he welcomed the political debate consuming legislators inside and outside the current session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which has focused on whether it should issue a decree limiting the powers of the President and empowering the Vice-President.

He stressed that it was the role of the Parliament to control the President's power. "The spirit of this system is that the power of the President must be limited because the Constitution has given enough room for the President. And this is the spirit we should maintain," he said to applause from legislators.

On Monday, the MPR pulled back from issuing a legally binding decree which would require him to hand decision-making power to his Vice-President and will, instead, now ask him to issue a presidential decree detailing the Vice-President's tasks.

He also told legislators that it was not up to him but up to the House of Representatives (DPR) and the MPR to limit any political discussion. He called on legislators to continue making amendments to the Constitution because, he said, that was part of its original concept.

Unlike the two previous speeches he gave to the MPR, yesterday's was delivered by Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri. This suggested that the political differences which had marked the opening of the MPR session 10 days ago, were resolved. She may also have agreed to read the speech because it was not a political account to the legislators.

The thorny issue of revoking the ban on the communist party was also raised by the President, who said he had a right to call for an end to the ban – just as the House had the right to disagree with him, and that it was normal for the two sides to have different ideas. "This open-mindedness will guarantee our diversity."

Touching on the issue of sectarian violence rocking provinces such as Maluku, he said the government needed to begin a process of national reconciliation. "Our tasks ahead are, therefore, to rebuild inter-group relations in a more creative and humane format," he said. But he blamed the violence on "dirty hands who maliciously manipulate society's ignorance of its own cultural values."

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