House leaders say no rules to suspend speaker Akbar

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

House of Representatives (DPR) leaders refused on Tuesday to respond to a no-confidence motion lodged by a group of legislators against convicted speaker Akbar Tandjung, purely for technical reasons.

Deputy House speaker Muhaimin Iskandar, of the National Awakening Party (PKB), told the media after a leadership meeting that the top legislators had opted to let the House steering committee (Bamus) settle the issue. The leadership meeting was held at the request of the committee after it failed to reach agreement with regard to the motion.

"There is no regulation on the no-confidence petition against Pak Akbar. We will ask Bamus to make a decision," Muhaimin said.

Akbar presided over Tuesday's meeting, which was also attended by deputy speakers Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Tosari Widjaja of the United Development Party (PPP) and A.M. Fatwa of the National Mandate Party (PAN).

Muhaimin disclosed that the decision had been made after receiving advice from the House research center.

Article 163 of House internal regulations simply says that at least 10 legislators can submit a petition either concerning article 150 (on a request for a presidential explanation) or another matter.

Meanwhile, legislator Dwi Ria Latifa of PDI Perjuangan, who initiated the motion, hailed the House leaders' decision, saying that the top legislators had no authority to stop the motion.

"That decision (to take the issue to Bamus) is the right judgment," Dwi told The Jakarta Post by phone.

Dwi said she hoped the next meeting of Bamus, scheduled for Thursday, would hear the reasoning of the petition signatories.

After her group had given its explanation, she added, other factions could judge whether the petition to suspend Akbar was appropriate or not.

Dwi added that 118 legislators had now signed the petition, which was originally supported by 69 lawmakers when it was submitted to deputy House speaker Soetardjo on Sept. 16.

Unlike other draft laws that were announced at the opening of the current House session on Oct. 28, Akbar refused to announce the petition, apparently to avoid humiliation. His refusal drew protests.

After being ignored at the plenary meeting, the deliberations on the petition against Akbar were also delayed in the steering committee.

Akbar has been convicted of misusing Rp 40 billion in funds belonging to the State Logistics Agency (Bulog). The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced him to three years in jail, but his appeal has helped him evade imprisonment.

Rejection of Akbar's continued leadership did not come only from other political parties, but also from inside Golkar, which Akbar chairs.

The most vehement opposition to Akbar comes from Marwah Daud Ibrahim, who hails from Golkar's dissenting camp, Iramasuka.

Marwah criticized House leaders last week over their slow response to demands to unseat Akbar.

She added the slowness was apparently attributable to a lack of political will from House leaders.

"If they (House leaders) had the political will, this (the demand to unseat Akbar) could have been decided right now," she said.

Meanwhile, a Golkar team has been giving consideration to punishing Marwah for her rejection of Akbar's leadership.

The policy to assess Marwah's action was prompted by the fact that all regional chapters of Golkar had given support to the leadership of Akbar.

But Marwah's constituents in South Sulawesi threatened to take action against Golkar if the party punished her. They said Marwah won the House seat after receiving 85 percent of the vote in Soppeng regency, South Sulawesi.