'Boxing' legislators bury the hatchet

'Boxing' legislators bury the hatchet

Fabiola Desy Unidja and Abu Hanifah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Embarrassed by Thursday's brawl at the opening session of the
People's Consultative Assembly, legislators ducked for cover
whenever the incident was raised on Friday.

They said they did not want to hear it discussed again in
public because all the involved lawmakers had agreed to bury the
hatchet and forgive each other.

But the nationally televised incident of the opening of the
10-day Annual Session remained a hot topic everywhere.

Vice President Hamzah Haz discussed it when addressing Friday
mass prayers at a mosque in the Tanah Abang area, Central
Jakarta. He said he was amazed that legislators had resorted to
physical violence to resolve a problem.

"See yesterday's brawl? I could have understood it if they had
been kids, but they were adults," he said. He regretted the
incident.

"We usually see such behavior happen in other countries, but
we saw our legislators at it yesterday."

The scuffle pitted legislators demanding recognition of the
re-establishment of the regional representatives faction, a
legacy of the New Order regime, in one corner and those opposed
to it in the other corner.

At least one legislator, Marah Simon from the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), was hurt. Assembly Speaker
Amien Rais immediately apologized to the nation for the fight.

In the latest development, legislators seeking re-
establishment of the 130-member Regional faction, which was
dismantled in 1999, seemed to have lost their fight. Major
factions rejected their demands.

When presenting their assessment of the government
accountability report on Friday, most factions in the Assembly
ended their speech expressing their regret of the fight.

Jacob Tobing, a PDIP senior legislator at the Assembly said,
"It's over and we don't want to hear it raised again."

Although the incident was very much regretted, the Assembly
leadership do not have any plan to investigate it, neither do
they plan to punish the "fighters" who have tarnished the
institution's image.

The brawl was the first to have occurred in the Assembly's
history.

Article 67 in MPR Decree No. II/1999 on the MPR's internal
rule stipulates that legislators who disrupt a session are
subject to a verbal warning and expulsion from the convention
room if the warning is ignored.

Patrialis Akbar, lawmaker of the National Mandate Party (PAN),
blamed the incident partly on Amien Rais, who he said was not
strict enough in leading the session.