Advisory council meet decides on second meeting

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 06/22/2007 9:57 AM

The newly established Presidential Advisory Council held its first meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday to discuss, among other matters, a date when both parties could hold a second meeting.

Chairman of the council and former foreign affairs minister Ali Alatas said members of the President's advisory team and Yudhoyono himself had agreed to another meeting in July.

""We expect to have a new meeting, probably in July, at the Cipanas Presidential Palace where we can have a meeting in a relaxed atmosphere,"" Ali told reporters after the gathering.

Cipanas is a mountainous resort town south of Bogor, West Java.

As for other issues discussed during Thursday's meeting, Ali said such information was confidential.

""The law forming this council strictly prohibits us from revealing what we have discussed with the President,"" Ali said.

A 2006 law on the council stipulates that its members must employ a high degree of confidentiality with regards to their advice to the President.

Ali added that to prevent the council from becoming an unyielding institution, its members and the President had agreed to hold regular consultative meetings.

Presidential spokesman Andi Alfian Mallarangeng said Yudhoyono had also sought consultation with council members outside of the official meetings.

""The President has met with individual council members and some of them have also traveled with him,"" Andi told reporters.

In early April, Yudhoyono swore in nine members of the new council, which was mandated by the 1945 Constitution to provide counsel to the President on state affairs.

The nine advisors are former foreign affairs minister Ali Alatas; chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council Ma'ruf Amin; former environment minister Emil Salim; senior economist Sjahrir; senior rights campaigner Adnan Buyung Nasution; former minister for state administrative reforms T.B. Silalahi; former chairman of the Democratic Party Subur Budi Santoso; daughter of founding president Sukarno, Rachmawati Soekarnoputri and agriculture expert Radi A. Gany.

All were present during the inaugural meeting. (JP/M. Taufiqurrahman)

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