Muscle Politics

The annual session of the MPR started with a fight. Instead of orderly debate, the people's representatives pushed and shoved one another to get their views heard, appalling their colleagues and the nation.

November 6, 2001

It was comedy time on Indonesian TV on Thursday. Apart from their normal dose from the evening shows, the viewers got an additional bout of comedy in the morning. The comedians were legislators and the set was that most hallowed of Indonesian institutions, the supreme People's Consultative Assembly (MPR). The jokes were distinctly unfunny. The MPR Annual Session had been underway for barely one hour. The problems started as a number of members...

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