'Factions give parties a voice of legislature'

'Factions give parties a voice of legislature'

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Political parties, strengthened by Government Regulation No.
1/2002, need the presence of factions at their legislatures to
better fight for their political interests, legislators say.

Further, Rudi Harsa Tanaya, chairman of the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction in West
Java and Rafani Akhyar, chairman of the National Mandate Party
(PAN) faction, said they would oppose any dissolution of current
factions at the legislature, citing a need for their voices in
the decision-making process.

The pair offered similar words on Friday, when asked whether
it was necessary to break down the factions, since they were not
officially part of the legislature to begin with, and thus
perhaps impeded legislators' independent abilities to work
towards the greater good of their constituents.

Their presence is "in line with the current electoral system
with which political parties ... have authority to determine if
members can sit in the legislature to fight for a political
platform," Rudi said.

Rudi said that his faction, and its members, were obliged to
lobby for PDI Perjuangan's programs, while winning political
support from a larger pool of people during elections.

Rafani concurred, chiming in that the legislature would use
the one-man, one-vote system in the decision-making process, both
at the plenary session level and the commission level, to help
empower legislators to use their individual rights.

He hailed government regulations minimizing the number of
factions present in the legislature as a way to simplify
legislative machinations.

The regulation, moreover, will ease the decision-making,
"because the more factions there are, the more (time) the
legislature will spend," he added.

During its plenary session Thursday, however, the provincial
legislative council was deadlocked over whether it would enforce
the government regulation fully.

The regulation, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2002, requires
provincial and regency legislatures to have with them
representatives of factions who make up at least ten percent of
the total number of the legislatures' parties.

Factions whose members meet this mandate want to enforce it to
the fullest to simplify their numbers; on the other hand, the
legislators with constituents numbering less than ten percent
opposed the regulation.

Should the regulation be enforced, only the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), United Development
Party, Golkar Party and the Indonesian Military/National Police
will have their own faction.

Ten other parties, including the National Awakening Party
(PKB), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Crescent Star
Party (PBB) will likely form a joint faction.

Of the 100 seats in the provincial legislature, 76 were
occupied by the four major factions, while the remaining 24 go to
the other ten factions. The ten factions will likely form two
joint factions, as is mandated under the regulation.

A special committee to discuss the internal rulings, set up in
May, has endorsed the idea.

Major factions also agreed to maintain the current legislative
leadership under Eka Santosa of the PDI Perjuangan faction,
because he was elected unanimously during its 1999 plenary
session. At the time, minority factions called for a re-election
under the regulation.

Yudi Widiana Adhia of the Justice Party faction and Asep
Rachmat Kurnia of PAN faction walked out of the plenary session
in protest of what they considered the factions' arrogance.

The special committee's recommendations "show major factions'
arrogance," while forcing minority groups to accept legislation
they oppose, Yudi said.

The two legislators threatened to file suit in State
Administrative Court against the special committee, citing what
they characterized as unfair recommendations.

Asep argued that, under the government regulation, it would be
all but impossible for minority parties to fight for their own
political constituents in provincial legislatures unduly
dominated by major parties.

Simply put, "the four major factions will dominate all
decisions that will be made by the legislature," he said.