Supreme Court Approves Dismissal of Garut District Head.
Jakarta Globe January 23, 2013,
The Supreme Court has approved a proposal to dismiss embattled Garut district chief Aceng Fikri from his position, following his controversial divorce with a teenage bride last year.
The Garut Legislative Council filed the proposal for Aceng to be dismissed in December, after Aceng caused a national uproar when it was revealed that he had divorced Fani Oktora, who was 17 years old at the time, just four days after their July wedding via text message.
Since then, the district head, who broke several laws with his brief and unregistered Islamic marriage, was dropped by the Golkar Party and had faced repeated calls from government ministers and local constituents to resign from office.
Ridwan Mansyur, the Supreme Court spokesman, said the court decided on Tuesday to approve the proposal because a district head’s marriage life could not be separated from his public position.
“We grant the request of the Garut Legislative Council... dated on Dec. 26, 2012,” Ridwan told Indonesian news portal republika.co.id in Jakarta on Wednesday.
“We’ll inform the decision to [relevant] parties today. This is final,” he added.
The ruling now goes to the Home Affairs Ministry, which has the final say on Aceng’s political fate.
The district head on Wednesday said he respected the Supreme Court decision but would continue to lead Garut until the verdict came into force.
“Hopefully this is the best decision. I call on the public to remain calm, to maintain the peaceful situation, to not be reactive; and I hope the administration will operate normally,” Aceng said at his office in the West Java district, as reported by antaranews.com.