House drops plan to probe fuel price increases<\/p>\n
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Opposition bloc in the House of Representatives was dealt a major
\nblow as the legislative body voted on Tuesday against creating
\ntwo special committees to inquire into the government's
\ncontroversial fuel price hike policy and the auctioning of
\nillegal sugar.<\/p>\n
During a plenary session, the majority of all 10 factions in
\nthe House agreed not to set up the committees, saying the issues
\nwould already be further examined by existing House commissions.<\/p>\n
A request to inquire into the government's fuel price hike
\npolicy was submitted in March after a group of legislators, most
\nof them from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P),
\nopposed the rise.<\/p>\n
The party has officially declared itself an opposition to the
\ngovernment of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.<\/p>\n
A House member may request the creation of a special committee
\nfor an issue, with at least 11 legislators from two factions
\nneeded for the request to be brought to the plenary session. All
\nHouse factions later on express their views on the motion.<\/p>\n
At that time, the House agreed to accept the government's
\npolicy but insisted Cabinet members explain it to the House's
\nfinance commissions, especially the detail of how assistance
\npackages for the poor in education and health care would be
\ndisbursed.<\/p>\n
Three House factions -- the PDI-P, the National Awakening
\nParty (PKB), and the Social Democratic Party (PDS) -- oppose the
\ngovernment's fuel hike policy, while other factions spearheaded
\nby Vice President Jusuf Kalla's Golkar Party and Susilo's
\nDemocratic Party, support it.<\/p>\n
The PKB, PDS and PDI-P also called for the special committee
\ninto the sugar smuggling case, which was considered by many to
\nbe marred by corruption and unfair competition.<\/p>\n
About 56,000 tons of sugar was discovered after it was
\nillegally imported from Thailand last year and some of it was
\nlater auctioned. House members filing the request said the
\nauctions were often not transparent because they were not
\npublicly announced and questioned the relatively low final
\nauction prices of the sugar.<\/p>\n
The auction process was overseen by the Attorney General's
\nOffice, which is alleged to have favored certain political
\ninterests.<\/p>\n
The auction followed an instruction from Vice President Jusuf
\nKalla.<\/p>\n
The Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) has
\nlaunched an investigation into the auction process, which
\nreportedly caused Rp 47.85 billion (US$4.87 million) in state
\nlosses as the tender winning company bought the sugar at a price
\nbelow the price set by the Ministry of Trade.<\/p>\n
KKPU, however, was silent about the fact that the North
\nJakarta District Court which administered the auction gave only
\nfour days to companies to take part in the auction. The auction
\nwas made public through a local Jakarta newspaper.<\/p>\n
While agreeing that the process was questionable, the House
\nvoted that it should be examined in more detail by the Commission
\nIII on legal affairs and Commission VI on trade and industry.<\/p>\n
In the same session, the House formed three working committees
\nto deliberate three bills with the government -- the 2005-2025
\nnational development planning bill; the disaster mitigation bill;
\nand the bill on the government regulation in lieu of law No.
\n1\/2005 on industrial disputes resolution.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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