House leaders say no rules to suspend speaker Akbar

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.