Bill needed for President, VP coordination
Bill needed for President, VP coordination
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The National Awakening Party (PKB) faction in the House of
Representatives criticized the government of President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono for poor coordination among his administration
officials.
The faction demanded that the House and the government start
deliberating on the presidency bill to prevent a rivalry between
the President and Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
"Our faction will push for deliberation of the presidency
bill," PKB faction secretary Helmy Faishal Zaini said during a
press conference to announce the faction's evaluation of the
first 100 days of the government here on Monday.
The House and the government have been engaged in drawn out
discussions dealing with which bills would be put on the priority
list this year. Legislators said that approximately 50 bills
would be prioritized for the next 11 months.
Helmy gave two examples of poor coordination among the
government officials, both of which involved Vice President Jusuf
Kalla.
The first example is the issuance of a circular by Prijono
Tjiptoherijanto, secretary of the vice presidential office. In
the circular intended for Cabinet ministers and heads of state
institutions, Prijono said that the circular was based on the
vice president's briefing.
The circular implied that hearings with the House were not
important and its deliberations a waste of time. The circular has
prompted irate legislators to summon the President for an
explanation.
The second example is the issuance of a "vice presidential
decree" on the establishment of a national team for disaster
mitigation in Aceh. (Under the country's state administration
system, only the President has the right to issue a decree).
"The issuance of the circular and the decree clearly show that
the vice president has carried out actions beyond his authority,"
Helmy added.
Concerning government policies in corruption eradication, the
PKB faction hailed the measures taken by the government in
dealing with graft cases involving councillors in several
regions.
"However, it is regrettable that only a few of the big
corruption cases have been taken on so far," Helmy added.
Data from the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) says that the
Attorney General's Office had in 2004 terminated the
investigation into 40 graft cases, 12 of which related to the
Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI), which centers on the
disbursement of billions of dollars worth of funds to ailing
banks in the wake of the late 1990s financial crisis.
The PKB faction also criticized poor coordination among the
law enforcers: the National Police, the Attorney General's
Office, and the Corruption Eradication Commission.
Separately, spokesman of the State Audit Agency (BPK)
Baharuddin Aritonang also criticized the government for showing
no intention to cooperate with the agency in dealing with
corruption eradication.
"Corruption eradication requires coordination among state
institutions. The government should not ignore other state
agencies," Aritonang added.