Internal spat leaves House in vacuum
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A plenary meeting attended by five of the 10 factions in the House of Representatives endorsed on Wednesday members of 11 House commissions and five auxiliary bodies, but rival factions and an expert dismissed the session as invalid.
The factions that make up the Nationhood Coalition -- Golkar Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Reform Star Party (PBR) and the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS), as well as the National Awakening Party (PKB), went ahead with the plenary meeting even as other factions in the House boycotted the session for a second consecutive day.
Faction members of the People's Coalition -- the United Development Party (PPP), the Democratic Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the Democratic Pioneer Reform faction -- stayed away from a scheduled plenary meeting on Tuesday, forcing House Speaker Agung Laksono to delay the meeting until Wednesday.
Article 203 of the House's standing orders stipulate that a House meeting can take a decision only if attended by more than half of the members representing more than half of the factions in the House.
While the meeting on Wednesday was attended by 309 of 547 House members, legally the plenary session had no authority to make a decision as it was not attended by more than half of the factions in the House.
The five factions, however, went ahead with the meeting, arguing that each legislator was autonomous.
"We understand the stipulation in the House's standing orders, but I think each legislator is autonomous. We must start working now and continue these proceedings," said Sutjipto of the PDI-P during the meeting.
The plenary session also endorsed working partners for each commission and formed a special committee to revise the House's standing orders to require that a meeting need only be attended by more than half of the House members to qualify to issue binding agreements.
Legislator Djuhad Mahja of United Development Party said the plenary session was illegitimate and its decisions invalid.
"They can organize a meeting, but they cannot make any decisions," Djuhad said.
The factions that make up the People's Coalition, which are known to support President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, appealed to the Nationhood Coalition to agree to a meeting to renegotiate the chairmanship posts.
Tomy A. Legowo from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies also said the plenary meeting on Wednesday was illegitimate.
"Consequently, decisions taken in the meeting are invalid," he told The Jakarta Post.
Tomy, who is also director of House watchdog Formappi, suggested the 10 factions sit down together and settle their differences.
Members of the People's Coalition decided not to attend the plenary session after their demands that commission and auxiliary body chairs be assigned in proportion to seat numbers in the House were rejected by the Nationhood Coalition and the PKB.
House leaders and faction chairs had agreed on Oct. 18 to distribute the leadership posts proportionally. Under the proportional system, Golkar would have about four commission chairs, PDI-P three, PAN, PPP and PD two, and PKB one.
This agreement was abandoned allegedly after the PKB insisted that it should receive two commission chairmanships. The PKB, under the leadership of Ali Masykur Musa, then approached the Nationhood Coalition and offered support for its proposal to put the leadership posts to a vote.
Under this new scheme, Golkar, the PDI-P and the PKB would get seven, six and three chairmanship posts, respectively, an arrangement that could pose a formidable challenge to Susilo.