House leaders rule Akbar will retain speakership

House leaders rule Akbar will retain speakership

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite his graft trial, Golkar Party chairman won one of the
battles of his political career as leaders of the House of
Representatives (DPR) dismissed on Tuesday debates over his
status as speaker of the legislative body.

Following a two-hour internal meeting, three deputy House
speakers announced that Akbar would retain his position in the
House and they would take on his duties while he was in the
custody of the Attorney General's Office.

Attending the meeting were Tosari Widjaja of the United
Development Party (PPP) faction, A.M. Fatwa of the Reform
faction, and Muhaimin Iskandar of the National Awakening Party
(PKB) faction. Another deputy Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno of the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction
is on an official visit to Morocco for an Inter-Parliamentary
Union (IPU) conference.

"The meetings in the House will proceed as usual and will be
presided over by one of us," Tosari told a media conference.

Akbar has moved closer to being able to evade an investigation
by the House when the House again rescheduled the decision to
pass a motion to set up a special committee of inquiry into
Akbar's graft case until May. Barring any unforeseen
circumstances, the House will vote against the motion after
President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who chairs the influential PDI
Perjuangan, indicated her rejection of the inquiry.

According to Tosari, the decision was based on Article 21 of
the House's internal regulations which state that if the House
speaker is unable to carry out his duties, the deputies will take
over the tasks.

Based on a consensus between the deputy speakers, economic and
financial issues will be handled by Tosari, political and
security affairs will be in the hands of Soetardjo, social
affairs will be tackled by Muhaimin, and Fatwa will be in charge
of people's welfare.

Tosari denied allegations that the detention of Akbar had
stalled the work of the House.

"We will give an explanation to legislators regarding the
position of House speaker at the plenary meeting on March 28," he
said, referring to the session which will mark the closing of the
current sitting. The House will resume activities in mid-May.

At a plenary meeting on Monday, a legislator from PDI
Perjuangan Panda Nababan questioned the function of Akbar
following his detention on March 7.

Akbar, who also chairs Golkar Party, was detained to
precipitate the investigation into his alleged involvement in the
misappropriation of Rp 40 billion in funds belonging to the State
Logistics Agency (Bulog) when he was the minister/state secretary
in 1999.

Since the arrest, debates have been rife among legislators
over whether they should appoint a replacement for Akbar.

PKB had appeared to spearhead the talks on the dismissal of
Akbar from the top legislative post. Some other legislators
recommended that Akbar should be suspended and be non-active
until he is convicted.

Golkar legislators, however, defended their leader, saying
there was no regulation whatsoever that can force Akbar to
relinquish his post.

Muhaimin claimed on Monday that the detention of Akbar had
affected the House's performance. But he was silenced when Tosari
dismissed his opinion.

Apart from discussing the internal House activities, the
meeting on Tuesday also touched on plans to continue deliberation
of the bill on the presidency, regulations against female
students wearing Muslim head scarves in school and the poor
performance of legislators. Tosari, however, did not elaborate on
these topics.

Separately, Vice President Hamzah Haz, who is also PPP
chairman, said he would not interfere with the House factions in
deciding the fate of Akbar.

"Whatever decision is taken by the factions, we must respect
it," Hamzah told reporters at his office on Tuesday.