The Jakarta Globe, December 21, 2012
The Garut Legislative Council on Friday voted overwhelmingly to have district chief Aceng Fikri removed from office, though a chance that the embattled leader holds onto power remains as his case makes its way to the Supreme Court.
A special committee tasked with investigating Aceng’s case had presented a report on Wednesday in which it found the district head in violation of the 1974 Marriage Law and the 2004 Local Government Law. Those findings pertained to his brief and unregistered Islamic marriage to a teenage girl.
The council, known as DPRD, on Friday voted in favor of submitting a dismissal recommendation to the Supreme Court. Forty-five out of 49 local lawmakers who attended the plenary session agreed to report Aceng’s actions to the Supreme Court.
“From 49 [council members], 45 agreed to recommend that Aceng’s dismissal be taken to MA [the Supreme Court],” council speaker Ahmad Bajuri said as he read the verdict, as reported by Indonesian news site merdeka.com.
“The other four [DPRD members] deferred to Government Regulation No. 19/2010 … which hands over the decision [to determine Aceng’s fate] to the governor,” Ahmad added, explaining that the minority had sought a different procedural route to handle the matter.
Since more than three-fourths of council members settled on the application of Law No. 32/2004 on local government, the council will submit Aceng's case to the Supreme Court.
According to Article 29 of the law, the Supreme Court must investigate the case and issue a verdict within 30 days of receiving the DPRD recommendation.
If proven guilty by the court, the DPRD must then hold another plenary session and send a dismissal recommendation to the president, who has 30 days to process it.
Aceng has faced national scorn since it was revealed in early December that he had divorced 17-year-old Fani Oktora just four days after their July wedding — via text message. The district head has since been dropped by the Golkar Party and has faced repeated calls to resign, from government ministers and local constituents alike.
Earlier on Friday, about 500 people attacked some 300 of Aceng’s supporters outside the DPRD building. Protesters there demanded that the council remove Aceng from his post, as reported by detik.com.
The riot lasted about 10 minutes, before 200 police officers arrived to secure the area.
vr 21 dec 2012 - 16:07