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.