Agung in hot water over House members' brawl

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The brawl among legislators that broke out when they were debating the government's fuel price policy on Wednesday has made House of Representatives Speaker Agung Laksono a target for criticism, in particular for his failure to maintain neutrality in leading the session.

Tommy Legowo, chairman of the legislature watchdog Formappi, said that the incident showed how narrow political interests dominated decision-making processes in the House.

"The leader of the session must take some of the blame, but this is not a leadership issue alone. We cannot ignore that political interests were at play in this case," he said on Thursday.

The brawl occurred at a House plenary session being held to decide the House's response to the government's unpopular fuel price policy.

While six of the House's 10 factions expressed their opposition to the policy, Agung, who presided over the meeting, unilaterally approved a motion apparently aimed at preventing the House from immediately taking a political stance in rejecting the fuel price policy.

This angered certain lawmakers from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which has been leading the campaign against the fuel price policy, particularly when Agung did not accommodate their protests. Some lawmakers were also frustrated because their voices could not be clearly heard, as from the very start of the meeting their microphones had been shut down.

"Political powers are at play. In future, the House must have a firm mechanism to ensure neutrality so that House leaders cannot abuse their positions to serve their political interests," Tommy said.

But University of Indonesia political scientist Maswadi Rauf said that Agung had every right to take advantage of his position to the benefit of his party. The problem was with the PDI-P, whose lawmakers were too emotional in their response to Agung's move.

Separately, chairman of the PDI-P faction Tjahjo Kumolo blamed Agung for the brawl, saying that he was "unfair and biased in facilitating the opinions of certain factions."

"All 550 House members agreed by acclamation to his appointment as House Speaker. We all supported him, so why does he now seem to be taking sides with certain factions?" he told The Jakarta Post.

Agung acquired the House's top post with the help of the Nationhood Coalition, which was founded by PDI-P, Golkar, the United Development Party (PPP) and the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS). But Golkar, the largest party in the House, later withdrew from the coalition after Vice President Jusuf Kalla took over the party's chairmanship from Akbar Tandjung in December.

Led by Akbar, the Coalition was a grouping aimed at helping PDI-P's Megawati Soekarnoputri and running mate Hasyim Muzadi win the Sept. 20 election runoff.

Its contender was the People's Coalition, which supported Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla. The main members of this coalition are Susilo's Democrat Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

Kalla's victory over Akbar changed the political constellation and effectively buried the Nationhood Coalition.

Meanwhile, Kalla defended Agung's leadership during the Wednesday meeting, saying that the Golkar cadre had done "a great job" in coordinating legislators.

"Agung has done his job well. He is a very patient person. To find a solution that can be accepted by all parties, there should be a win-win solution. We should take the middle way to make everybody happy," he said.