Disciplinary committee for Bulog scam unlikely

Bambang Nurbianto and Abu Hanifah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Legislators gave the cold shoulder on Friday to anticorruption activists' calls for the House of Representatives to set up a disciplinary committee to investigate the speaker's alleged involvement in a Rp 40 billion corruption case.

Some argued that the House's code of ethics adopted a month ago did not allow investigation into a case that involved politicians before they became House members.

Akbar Tandjung allegedly siphoned off money from the National Logistics Agency (Bulog) to the Golkar Party in 1999 when he was minister/state secretary and Golkar chairman.

Others said that they would rather concentrate on efforts to form a special committee to investigate the role of House Speaker Akbar Tandjung in the corruption scandal.

"The code of ethics only aims at showing recalcitrant legislators their past mistakes. If they are found guilty, they will be read the riot act. That's all," said Amin Said Husni, a legislator from the National Awakening Party (PKB).

The call for a disciplinary committee came from a coalition of 16 NGO activists who see the efforts to set up a special committee to investigate Akbar go nowhere.

The seasoned Golkar legislators have even managed to shoot down advocates' bid to put the debate on the committee formation on the agenda of the upcoming House Plenary Session.

NGO activists say that forming a disciplinary committee would be a simpler procedure than setting up a special committee.

Legislator Taufikurachman Saleh, of PKB, the party which has been the most outspoken on the scandal, said he did not believe anyone would support the disciplinary committee idea.

Even politicians from the largest faction, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), are skeptical about it.

Roy B.B. Janis, chairman of PDI Perjuangan, the largest faction in the House, said that his short-term target was to put the debate on the establishment of the special investigative committee on the agenda of the upcoming Plenary Session scheduled for Dec. 6.

"We are concentrating on this effort," Roy told The Jakarta Post.

Fellow PDI Perjuangan legislator, Jacobus Mayongpadang, added, "if we split our concentration (between the special committee and a disciplinary committee) it will waste our energy."

Voicing the same skepticism was chairman of the Reform faction Ahmad Farhan Hamid. He said the committee could not be formed until hard evidence was found of Akbar's role in the scandal.