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No need to worry about impeachment: Academics
Stand united: University of Gadjah Mada professor, Mochtar Mas'oed (center), reads out the National Academics Discussion Forumâs joint statement on Sunday, urging President Joko Widodo to immediately resolve the ongoing conflict between the Corruption Eradication Commission and the National Police and not to worry about impeachment as there are no grounds to impeach him
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Stand united: University of Gadjah Mada professor, Mochtar Mas'oed (center), reads out the National Academics Discussion Forumâs joint statement on Sunday, urging President Joko Widodo to immediately resolve the ongoing conflict between the Corruption Eradication Commission and the National Police and not to worry about impeachment as there are no grounds to impeach him. (JP/Bambang Muryanto) (center), reads out the National Academics Discussion Forumâs joint statement on Sunday, urging President Joko Widodo to immediately resolve the ongoing conflict between the Corruption Eradication Commission and the National Police and not to worry about impeachment as there are no grounds to impeach him. (JP/Bambang Muryanto)
Stand united: University of Gadjah Mada professor, Mochtar Mas'oed (center), reads out the National Academics Discussion Forum's joint statement on Sunday, urging President Joko Widodo to immediately resolve the ongoing conflict between the Corruption Eradication Commission and the National Police and not to worry about impeachment as there are no grounds to impeach him. (JP/Bambang Muryanto)
The National Academics Discussion Forum said President Jokowi also had no need to worry about potential impeachment as there were currently no grounds to do so.
'We give a guarantee to the President that Indonesia's presidency is based on a strong and solid legal system so that impeachment threats against the President are baseless,' said University of Gadjah Mada (UGM) professor Mochtar Mas'oed when he read out a joint statement of academics at the university's main building in Yogyakarta on Sunday.
'The President must be braver and more independent in taking a stance because our Constitution and legal system protect the President from the arbitrariness of parties who put their personal and partisan interests above the interests of the state and Indonesian people,' he went on.
Representatives of the Association of Indonesian Private Universities (Aptisi) and the Indonesian Rectors Forum, professors and students of universities in Yogyakarta as well as pro-democracy activists supported the joint declaration. Two of nine-member team appointed by President Jokowi to resolve the KPK-National Police conflict ' former Muhammadiyah chairman Syafii Maarif and Hikmahanto Juwana, a legal expert from the University of Indonesia ' also gave their support.
The discussion forum went on to say that President Jokowi must swiftly fill the vacant National Police chief position. The President needed to consider and implement the presidential team's recommendations that urged him to cancel the appointment of Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan as the National Police chief as a result of his being named a graft suspect by the KPK, it added.
'We support the President in upholding the morality of the nation above personal and partisan interests. The Team of Nine's recommendations urging him not to inaugurate a state official who has been named a graft suspect are part of the efforts to safeguard public morality,' said Mochtar, adding that the forum also urged President Jokowi to implement policies to stop the criminalization of the KPK. (ebf)(++++)
