House fails again to set up team to probe Speaker

House fails again to set up team to probe Speaker

Kurniawan Hari and A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Attempt to uphold justice against House of Representatives (DPR)
Speaker Akbar Tandjung, who is implicated in a high-profile
financial scandal, experienced another blow on Thursday as the
DPR was unable to make a firm decision on whether to endorse a
plan to form a committee of inquiry into the case.

Even though the Attorney General's Office decided to put Akbar
in detention on Thursday, nine of the 10 factions at the DPR were
forced to delay the talks until March 18, despite strong
resistance from the National Awakening Party (PKB). The PKB
faction, which promoted the inquiry, finally accepted the
situation as well.

The delay was aimed at providing more time for legislators to
monitor the progress of legal processing by the Attorney
General's Office against Akbar.

The problem is that legal processing alone is insufficient.
Upholding justice against Akbar, in his capacity as speaker of
the DPR, one of the highest state institutions in Indonesia,
should also be accompanied by political measures through the
establishment of the inquiry committee.

Akbar, who will be the main target of the inquiry committee,
is accused of siphoning off Rp 40 billion in nonbudgetary funds
of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog). The Rp 40 billion was part
of a Rp 54.6 billion fund disbursed by Bulog for humanitarian
programs during the crisis in 1999.

Any failure to set up such an inquiry committee is feared to
further hurt the progress of reform in Indonesia.

A similar committee, which led to the ouster of Abdurrahman
Wahid from the presidency in July last year, took only about
three weeks to prepare.

Thursday's meeting was the eighth of a series of meetings by
the House steering committee since the submission of the proposal
last October.

The delay promptly raised speculation that it was rife with
political maneuvering.

An agreement for the delay was reached at a closed-door
meeting among leaders of the 10 factions in the House, following
a plenary meeting to hear the stance of those factions.

The most influential faction, from the Indonesian Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), with 153 seats in the House,
backed the proposal, but suggested fellow legislators closely
monitor the legal process before setting up the inquiry
committee.

"We demand that the House assign Commission II for legal
affairs to monitor intensively the legal processing of the case,"
PDI Perjuangan spokesperson Dwi Ria Latifa said.

Chairman of the faction Roy B.B. Janis denied speculation that
the delay constituted a political compromise.

"I think that is not a compromise. We agreed to discuss it on
March 18," Roy told the media.

The decision for the delay was read out by House secretary-
general Sitti Nurhayati Daud at a meeting presided over by Deputy
House Speaker Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno.

Signs of the decreasing enthusiasm of legislators to discuss
the inquiry committee appeared early in the morning when only
about 50 out of 500 House members showed up at 9 a.m. The meeting
started 30 minutes late.

The Golkar Party, which strongly opposed the inquiry
committee, won the support of the 58-strong United Development
Party (PPP) faction and the 38-strong Military/Police faction.

Meanwhile, hundreds of students staged protests on Thursday,
calling for the establishment of the committee.

The protesters included students from the Student Executive
Bodies (BEM) of the University of Indonesia (UI) and Bogor
Institute of Agriculture (IPB), the Study-Action Circle for
Indonesian Democracy, the Democratic People's Party (PRD), the
Islamic Students Association (HMI MPO) and others.

"Should the DPR fail to form the special committee, this will
be a betrayal of the reform agenda.

"The establishment of the committee is an indication of
whether the DPR is committed to eradicating corruption and
collusion in the country," said coordinator of the BEM Wisnu
Sunandar.