MPR to induct Sidarto Dhanusubroto as Its New Chief

Jakarta (Antara) - The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) will induct Sidarto Dhanusubroto as its new chairman to replace Taufik Kiemas next Monday. "The meeting of MPR leadership has decided that the inauguration of new MPR chief to replace Taufik will take place on July 8," MPR Deputy Chairman Hajriyanto Y Thohari said at the parliament building on Thursday. He said the MPR leadership received a candidate for the MPR chief only on Thursday and therefore, it needed time to process technical matters related to the inauguration. "I am afraid the inauguration will not run smoothly and solemnly merely because we have short time," he said. Chief of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) Megawati Soekarnoputri submitted the name of the MPR chief candidate to the MPR leadership at the parliament building on Thursday, Hajriyanto said. He said the MPR leadership will invite heads of state institutions, namely the president, the vice president, the House of Representatives (DPR) leadership, the Regional Representative Council (DPD) leadership, the Supreme Court chief justice, the Constitutional Court chief justice, the chief of the State Audit Board and the chief of the Judicial Commission to the inauguration ceremony. Taufiq Kiemas died at a hospital in Singapore on June 8 after being treated at the hospital for four days for fatigue after attending a state function namely the commemoration of the birth of the country's state ideology Pancasila in Ende, East Nusa Tenggara on June 1. (*)