Brawl brings spotlight on regional representatives faction
Bambang Nurbianto and Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The embarrassing boxing match on the floor of the People's Consultative Assembly on Thursday has rekindled the debate on whether the Regional Representatives Faction should be revived.
The fight began as a result of some in the Assembly who wanted the faction to be officiated, but the demand was denied.
Critics insist that restoring the 130-strong faction is a waste of time because the legislators represent only themselves.
In their own defense, the legislators argue that the provinces need their presence to represent the interests of the people in the areas because other factions only represent their respective political parties.
"Reinstatement of the Regional Faction won't have any effect on the people or the nation," said Syamsuddin Haris of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) on Friday.
The faction was dissolved in 1999 amid the political euphoria that followed the momentous fall of Soeharto's authoritarian New Order regime.
Dominant parties joined forces to remove the faction from the Assembly, the highest law-making body, because it was seen as part of Soeharto's political machine that helped him cling to power for 32 years.
The faction members traditionally consisted of Soeharto's allies, such as governors and regional military chiefs, who would rubber-stamp the strongman's various policies.
The former faction members were later assimilated into other factions in the 700-member Assembly. But not all the regional representatives are happy about it. Some of them continue to demand a reinstatement of their faction and their calls are not going unnoticed.
The faction is scheduled to be reinstated during the present Annual Session despite objections from rival faction members. The regional representatives showed their frustration when Assembly Speaker Amien Rais refused to make a ruling on the faction at the opening session on Thursday.
Syamsuddin claimed the revival of the faction would only benefit the respective legislators and nobody else. He hoped Indonesia would eventually have a direct presidential election system and have all the factions scrapped completely.
J. Kristiadi of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) stressed that many of regional representatives consist of elderly politicians who want to retain power.
"They only think about how to strengthen their political position. What happened on Thursday only convinced me that the whole Assembly, not only the regional faction, is no longer needed," Kristiadi said.
Ikot Rinding, a regional representative from West Kalimantan said that the Assembly could not retract its commitment to reinstating the faction, whose existence is guaranteed by law.
Ikot pointed out the reestablishment was mandated by the Constitution, a presidential decree, and a decree issued by the Regional Legislative Body (DPRD) in each province.
He explained that some regional representatives were civil servants who were not allowed to join any political party due to conflict of interest issues.
Major parties are reluctant to support the reestablishment of the regional faction for fear of losing seats in the assembly.
Should the regional faction be reinstated, the Golkar faction would suffer the largest loss of membership. Of the 107 regional representatives that raise support, 63 are currently members of the Golkar faction.
Chairman of the Golkar Faction Fahmi Idris said his party would not mind the faction's comeback as long as their number is only 130, the same as it was originally.
Golkar's condition is particularly tough because many former regional faction members are already secure with their political factions.