Habibie, Army ask kin to quit official posts

Justice Minister Muladi said the release of other political prisoners was under consideration, saying the most likely candidates were those jailed for protesting human rights violations.

Pakpahan, chairman of an independent labour union, was serving a four-year jail term ordered in 1995 for allegedly instigating a labour riot in North Sumatra.

Bintang, chairman of the non-recognised Indonesian Democratic Union Party, was sentencd to 34 months’ jail in May 1996 for insulting Suharto during a lecture in Germany.

Meanwhile, the President and powerful armed forces chief have ordered their relatives toresign from government posts in a bid to stamp out nepotism.

The ruling Golkar Party also wants legislators who obtained their positions because of family connections to quit.

The party’s deputy chairman, R Agung laksono, has urged members of Parliament appointed through nepotism to voluntarily step down or be forced out, the Jakarta Post reported today.

Nepotism flourished under former president Suharto, who stepped down last Thursday after 32 years of rule.

He installed one daughter as a cabinet minister. He also granted her and his other five children lucrative business monopolies and government concessions that made them billionaires.

Ending nepotism and collusion were key demands of student demonstrators whose protests helped engineer Suharto’s ouster.

Over the weekend, Habibie’s brother Junus Effendi Habibie quit as head of the Batam industrial development authority. Yesterday, his son Ilham resigned as assistant chief of the agency for the assessment and application of technology.

GenWiranto also announced yesterday that his wife and daughter will give up their posts in the people’s consultative assembly, an appointed body that helps choose the country’s president.