Justice vs politics

Disillusion is perhaps too mild a word to describe the news that came out of the House of Representatives building on Monday. With hundreds of student protesters jostling and shoving against the House's front gate to push their demand for the formation of a special commission to investigate the corruption scandal known as Buloggate II, a majority of legislators inside the House of Representatives nonetheless voted against such an inquiry.

As a result of Monday's debate, 193 of the 360 legislators present voted against forming such a commission. With only 73 legislators voting for and 94 others abstaining, it appears to have put an end to the months-long drive to have the House investigate its own speaker, Akbar Tandjung, for his alleged involvement in a Rp 40 billion scandal, which occurred during the brief presidency of B.J. Habibie, when Akbar was state/Cabinet secretary. It may be noted in passing that last year, Indonesia's fourth president, Abdurrahman Wahid, lost his presidency after a similar inquiry implicated him in what has become known as Buloggate I, involving a sum of Rp 35 billion from the same agency.

While the result of Monday's voting may be gratifying for the Golkar Party, which Akbar leads, it is hugely disappointing for the majority of people in this country. Particularly disappointing is the stance taken by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), which, after months of publicly wavering and privately maneuvering finally decided to oppose the moves to form the commission of inquiry into Buloggate II.

Given the fact that PDI Perjuangan, with its 153 legislators, controls the biggest faction in the House, that stance effectively killed any chance to form the commission.

Some 50 PDI Perjuangan legislators did not even bother to show up to vote.

Also, that their position was announced at virtually the last minute, it is indeed something of a surprise to find that only three of its legislators voted against forming the commission. Five openly supported the move and by far the biggest majority, 92 legislators, abstained. As some observers have noted, this would seem to indicate a move by the party to appease its critics, although, of course, the 92 abstentions would have made no difference if they had voted for the creation of the inquiry.

On the face of it, there is some fairly good reasoning underlying the argument that PDI Perjuangan is presenting to the public, which is that the supremacy of the law must be upheld and since a simultaneous inquiry by the House could only interfere with the legal process, which is already moving, no commission therefore is needed. Objections to this kind of reasoning, however, are easily raised. Throughout its most recent history, this country's legal system has shown few signs of integrity, as was demonstrated most recently by its handling of the case against Tommy Soeharto.

Hence the criticism being hurled at the party by some of this country's most noted observers. The highly respected Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid, for example, remarked that the party's decision to drop the proposal to establish a special commission of inquiry was quite unfortunate as it showed that the party with the largest representation in the legislature was now against upholding justice. Others have accused the party's chairperson, Megawati Soekarnoputri, of betraying the people.

Whatever the case, it seems that all that is now water under the bridge. So, it appears that the time has not yet arrived when the representatives of the people carry out the will of the people, but rather the interests of their own political parties and those of their leaders. The real reason why PDI Perjuangan took such an unpopular stance is of course clear to everyone: It does not want, or dare, to antagonize Golkar by implicating its chairman, Akbar Tandjung, in a major corruption case. The stakes for the party are simply too high.

The only hope that justice can still prevail is that the courts will show enough integrity and independence in its verdict against all those involved in the case. The chance that justice will be done may be slim indeed. However, it seems that this is yet another bitter pill that Indonesians will have to swallow.