Unruliness at the House seems order of the day<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): An interruption from the rank and file of the
\nlegislature would have been unthinkable a few years ago, but that
\nhas quickly become a thing of the past as "anything goes" seems
\nto be the order of today's House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
The free-for-all mentality was apparent on Wednesday when the
\nHouse, which was once called by a "kindergarten" by President
\nAbdurrahman Wahid, convened a plenary session to decide whether
\nto call a special session of the People's Consultative Assembly.<\/p>\n
The session soon became mired in heated debate on
\nadministrative issues causing brief adjournments, taking up most
\nof the morning session.<\/p>\n
Desperate to save the President's political life, members of
\nAbdurrahman's National Awakening Party (PKB) barraged the session
\nwith a number of technical issues.<\/p>\n
They wasted no time in unleashing their attacks with PKB
\nmember Rodjil Gufron firing the first shot only seconds after
\nHouse Deputy Speaker Soetardjo Soerjoguritno banged his gavel to
\nopen the session at around 9:30 a.m.<\/p>\n
Rodjil questioned the validity of Soetardjo's appointment
\nsaying that House Speaker Akbar Tandjung, who sat next to
\nSoetardjo, should preside over the session.<\/p>\n
Tension in the room rose when another PKB member, Ali Maskur
\nMusa, left his seat and approached the House leadership desk to
\nfile a protest.<\/p>\n
Apparently his microphone was not working and he felt it
\nnecessary to express his protest up front.<\/p>\n
A flurry of counter objections from the floor against Ali's
\nmove forced Soetardjo, a veteran politician from the Indonesian
\nDemocratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), to adjourn the
\nsession for 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
The 10 minute period passed and PKB members still fervently
\nappealed to the floor to replace Soetardjo with Akbar, but to no
\navail as a majority in the room were against the move.<\/p>\n
After some unsuccessful attempts to raise the same issue
\nagain, PKB then tried their luck by switching to a letter from
\nAttorney General Marzuki Darusman clearing the President of any
\ninvolvement in the financial scandals dubbed Bulogate and
\nBruneigate.<\/p>\n
PKB members maintained that impeachment proceedings against
\nthe President should be halted as the President had been cleared
\nof alleged corruption.<\/p>\n
Prolonged arguments forced Soetardjo to adjourn the session
\nagain for a second time.<\/p>\n
The impasse was then resolved through a vote. An overwhelming
\n426 legislators agreed to continue the proceedings and ignore
\nMarzuki's letter.<\/p>\n
During the evening, PKB members again tried to stall the vote
\nfor convening a special session of the Assembly by raising a
\nHouse membership issue.<\/p>\n
But eventually the PKB faction's minority voice was drowned
\nout and all 51 members walked out.(byg\/dja)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/unruliness-at-the-house-seems-order-of-the-day-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}