Legislators duck special committee

Legislators duck special committee

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Due to lukewarm enthusiasm shown by many legislators, the
high-profile proposal to form a special committee to investigate
Golkar chief Akbar Tandjung's alleged involvement in a Rp 54.6
billion (US$5 million) scandal was plunged into uncertainty.

Observers said that the future of the committee will depend
negotiations and deals between Golkar and the National Awakening
Party (PKB).

The PKB has been spearheading the movement to form such a
committee but its apparently weak lobbying strategy seems to have
brought the proposal to a stalemate.

On Thursday, the Deliberation Body (Bamus) had failed, for
mere technical reasons, to decide when the legislators would call
for a plenary session to form a committee. Many blamed this on
the inability of PKB to persuade other factions.

PKB officials on Friday lodged a formal complaint with the
House secretariat over the technical problems.

PKB, which has less than 20 percent of House seats, seems
undecided on what would be the exact focus of the committee.

"Our target is to clearly reveal the details of the case,
other targets will be decided later," an executive of the PKB
faction Ali Asad said here on Friday.

In earlier public explanations, Chairman of PKB Faction Ali
Masykur Musa implied that his goal was to put moral pressure on
Akbar, who has been implicated in the Bulog scandal, to quit.

His statement was criticized by Crescent Star Party (PBB)
Leader M.S. Kaban, who said that the PKB were only trying to
exact revenge for the downfall of president Abdurrahman Wahid,
the founder of PKB.

Many analysts, especially in the PKB, believe Golkar was
instrumental in the former president's ouster.

"It's OK to form a special committee, but there will
definitely be political bargaining. I think it will be much
better to support the (ongoing) investigation at the Attorney
General's Office," said Kaban.

He added that the creation of a special committee would not
automatically settle the case because there have been many
similar committees, such as the inquiry into state oil firm
Pertamina, that were unable to work effectively or achieve any
results.

There are 15 House committees currently working on different
issues. The formation of more committees may hamper the
performance of the existing committees, according to some
legislators.

Golkar member Agun Gunanjar Sudarsa denied speculations that
his faction had tried to halt the creation of the special
committee. "If there is growing support for the special
committee, we will face it," he added.

In the meantime Pramono Anung from the largest faction, the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan)
confirmed the party's executive board had allowed all 153 members
to exercise their individual rights.

"We know that 20 of the 50 legislators who currently support a
special committee are from PDI Perjuangan. This means the party's
executive board has allowed all members to decide independently,"
Pramono said.

Pramono confirmed that the majority of the 153 faction members
supported the proposal for a special committee to investigate the
financial scandal. "But the (official) stance of my faction has
not been decided yet," he said.

Meanwhile, the 38 member Military/Police faction which
abstained in last year's call for the creation of similar
committee to investigate a case involving then-president
Abdurrahman Wahid on Friday said the faction would assess the
proposal.

"This is a serious matter, we need further assessment," said
Budi Harsono, chairman of the faction.