Nationalist lawmakers want answers from govt on Aceh
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A number of House of Representatives lawmakers are seeking to summon the government to explain the Aceh peace accord to the House, a legislator said on Thursday.
Initiated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI- P), the motion has been sparked by disappointment among some legislators over the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which they claim neglected the role of the people's representatives in the House.
PDI-P legislator Aria Bima Prihastoto said on Thursday that at least 15 legislators from the PDI-P, the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Democratic Pioneer Star (BPD) factions had confirmed their support for the motion.
Aria said that some legislators from the National Mandate Party (PAN) were also considering supporting the motion, but would consult with their faction leaders first.
He said the number in favor of the motion would climb by Monday, when the lawmakers expect to file the motion with the House leadership.
An interpellation motion requires the backing of at least 17 lawmakers. However, the government may only be summoned with the approval of the House, a requirement that has kept several PDI-P- initiated motions at bay so far this year.
"It would be naive of the House not to seek clarification of the content of the MOU as it concerns the House. Yet we have been completely excluded from the process," Aria said.
He said that the MOU damaged Indonesia's sovereignty, especially with the presence of the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM), which will consist of around 200 unarmed observers from the European Union and Southeast Asian countries, and what he claimed was the excessive powers granted to Aceh.
"We're still examining other legal violations in this MOU as there's a possibility that it violates the 1945 Constitution," he said.
The House has been divided into the pro-government bloc, orchestrated by Vice President Jusuf Kalla's Golkar Party, and a smaller opposition bloc spearheaded by the PDI-P.
The House most recently foiled a move by the PDI-P and PKB against the government's fuel policy during a plenary session marred by an exchange of punches between rival legislators.
If most House factions deem the government's answers to their inquiries as dissatisfactory, the legislature can establish a special commission of inquiry.
A motion for the setting up of such a commission would require the support of at least 10 legislators from two factions before being submitted to the House leadership. It will only be adopted if the majority of the factions give their support.
The exercise of the House's right of interpellation led to the impeachment and removal from office of former president Abdurrahman Wahid in 2001, after the House claimed that he was implicated in a corruption case involving the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), despite the fact that the prosecution service had suspended its probe for lack of evidence.
Since then, a constitutional amendment passed in 2004 has made it almost impossible for the House to seek to remove a president from office.