JAKARTA: Leaders of the Peoples Congress, Indonesia’s top policy-making body, have proposed that ousted President Soekarno should be banned from political activities until he is cleared of complicity in the abortive Communist coup here in 1965, Congress sources said yesterday [March 12].

A draft resolution prepared by the Congress Working Committee for consideration at a forthcoming Congress session on March 21 said that Dr Soekarno’s innocence of complicity in the coup and its epilogue could only be established by an irreversible court decision, the sources added. The draft resolution replaces a Congress decision last year which banned Dr Soekarno from political activities until general elections were held.

The resolution further proposes that Acting President Gen Suharto should be named full President until elections are held.

Meanwhile Gen Suharto today moved to secure a working majority for a crucial Congress session due to convene next week to name him full President and postpone general elections.

In a decree he added 102 new non-party and armed forces members to bring membership of the Congress up to 828. Gen Suharto also said he had decreed the recalling and replacing of some Congress members based on the request from the group they represented. — Agencies

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2018