MINISTER CALLS FOR HALT TO POLEMICS ON PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT

Jakarta, Feb 3 (ANTARA) - Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono has called for a halt to polemics on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's statement about certain military/police officers engaging in politics to prevent the election of a presidential candidate named "S.".
"It is enough and there is no need to continue it," Sudarsono said after attending a limited cabinet meeting at the presidential office here on Tuesday.
Presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng meanwhile said that with his statement, made before participants of Defense Forces (TNI)/Police leadership meetings on January 29, the president had actually only wanted to emphasize the importance of neutrality of TNI/Police members in the elections.
"One of the keys to reform is TNI/Police neutrality in practical politics individually or institutionally," he said.
He said the President needed to emphasize it not only as the head of state but also as a former chief of the TNI's socio-political affairs who had made the blueprint of the TNI/Police's reform.
Andi said violations of the neutrality principle in the last general elections in 2004 by certain TNI/Police members was not a secret and widely reported in mass media.
Therefore the President also said he had forgiven it but wished it would not recur, he said.
Andi said President Yudhoyono in his statement had also said that he did not believe the information about TNI/Police members being members of the success teams of presidential candidates for the 2009 presidential election.
He admitted that the President had obtained the information about it from short messages he had received. "It just happened. The president received a short message, information," he said.
Andi denied that the President was worried ahead of the elections. He said the President only wished to remind the TNI/Police of their duty to remain neutral in the elections.
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