POLITICAL STABILITY UNAFFECTED BY ADITJONDRO'S BOOK : MINISTER

Jakarta, Dec 28 (ANTARA) - The public controversy about George Aditjondro's book linking the President with the Bank Century scandal has not in the least affected domestic political stability, a senior minister overseeing national security said.

"The public is already smart enough to see that the data in the book are less than accurate because they actually consist of quotations from secondary sources," Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto said here Monday.

He said what Aditjondro had written in his book titled "Dissecting the Cikeas Octopus behind the Bank Century Scandal" were things previously reported by a few media and already commented on or clarified by the parties concerned. "So the book's contents are actually obsolete," he said.

"There are other, far more important things (than discussing Aditjondro's book) that deserve the attention of the government and all components of the nation. We had better focus on these matters," he said.

About the parts of the book that could be considered to be defamatory, Djoko said they did not need to be responded to in ways that could disturb the national efforts to develop the state and nation for the sake of the people's welfare.

"So, the ongoing controversy is having no effect on stability. The public is already smart enough to assess the book's real value," Djoko said.

A number of quarters in the business world have expressed concern about impact of national political dynamics that have been triggered by the Bank Century on the country's economic stability.

Investors expressed their hope that the government would not become preoccupied with the political issues which had lately been heating up and thus forget national economic development.

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