House factions continue talks to end deadlock
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The 10 factions in the House of Representatives continued their negotiations on Sunday night in an attempt to put an end to the weeks-long dispute over commission posts, which has stopped the House from functioning.
The five factions grouped in the People's Coalition pledged to join a House plenary session scheduled for Tuesday, which is being arranged by the rival Nationhood Coalition.
Muhammad Najib and Dradjat Wibowo, legislators from the National Mandate Party (PAN) that is part of the People's Coalition, confirmed their faction was ready to attend the plenary meeting.
"Whatever is decided in the meeting tonight, we will attend Tuesday's plenary session because this was the instruction of PAN leader Amien Rais," Dradjat said.
The planned session would endorse the membership of the People's Coalition in House commissions and auxiliary bodies, which had been established by the rival Nationhood Coalition in an earlier plenary meeting, lawmakers said.
"We have all agreed that the solution must not cause the (opposing) factions to lose face," United Development Party (PPP) legislator Achmad Muqowam told The Jakarta Post.
Ali Masykur Musa of the National Awakening Party (PKB) said that during Sunday's meeting, his faction wanted to surrender four of its eight deputy chairmanship posts in the commissions and auxiliary bodies to help end the deadlock.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) offered to free up one of its six chairmanship posts and five deputy chairmanship posts, while the Golkar Party was willing to forgo its six deputy chairmanship posts, he said.
The meeting was attended by representatives from the 10 disputing factions, including M. Hatta of Golkar, Panda Nababan of PDI-P and Abdillah Toha of PAN.
Also at attendance were Untung Wahono of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Ali Masykur Musa of PKB, Lukman Hakim of the PPP, Sukartono of the Democratic Party, Apri Sukandar of the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS), Bursah Zarnubi of the Star Reform Party (PBR) and Idealisman Dachi of the joint Reform Pioneer Star faction.
House Speaker Agung Laksono and his deputies were not present in the meeting held at Mulia Hotel near the House compound.
PDI-P legislator Zainal Arifin said the forum was aimed at finding a "win-win solution" to the deadlock.
In the Sunday meeting, the opposing factions also continued negotiating over the possibility of improving the House's standing orders.
The House is divided into two camps; the Nationhood Coalition comprising Golkar, PDI-P and PDS, and supported by the PKB; and the People's Coalition of the PPP, the Democratic Party, PAN, PKS, and several minor parties.
The split followed a dispute over the mechanism for selecting the leaders of the 11 commissions and five auxiliary bodies. The Nationhood Coalition and PKB insisted the chairmanship posts be put to a vote, while the People's Coalition wanted the posts to be distributed proportionally among the House factions.
A proportional distribution would ensure smaller parties and parties in the People's Coalition, shared chairmanship posts.
Because their proposal was rejected by the Nationhood Coalition, the People's Coalition factions boycotted a plenary meeting that established the commissions and auxiliary bodies by revising the House's standing orders.
With the presence of 309 of 547 House members, the Nationhood Coalition claimed that all the decisions of the plenary meeting were valid.
However, the People's Coalition factions did not recognize the elections because they were not decided with two-thirds of House members present; the number required to hold a plenary session.
These factions have formed "quasi-commissions" instead.