Opposing House factions cling to their positions
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The two opposing factions in the House of Representatives remained locked in their respective positions on Friday, raising the possibility of a lengthy deadlock in the legislative body.
Members of the Nationhood Coalition and the National Awakening Party (PKB) proceeded with commission meetings on Friday, while the People's Coalition issued a no-confidence motion against House leaders, all of whom are from the Nationhood Coalition.
The Nationhood Coalition consists of Golkar, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) and the Reform Star Party (PBR). The members of the People's Coalition include the United Development Party (PPP), National Mandate Party (PAN), Democratic Party, Prosperous Peace Party (PKS) and several smaller parties grouped under the Democratic Pioneer Reform faction.
"We have to start our work as legislators. That is our moral responsibility," House Speaker Agung Laksono of Golkar said.
The House's defense commission and its honor council held separate internal meetings on Friday to discuss their agendas.
Members of the commission and council seemed unfazed by claims that plenary meetings attended by the Nationhood Coalition and the PKB over the past few days were illegitimate and thus could not produce legally binding decisions.
Members of the People's Coalition have boycotted all House meetings since Tuesday, after their demand that commission chairmanship posts be distributed proportionately was rejected by the Nationhood Coalition, which wanted to put the posts to the vote.
The proportional system would ensure that each faction -- including members of the People's Coalition, which supports the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono -- would receive chairmanship posts. Voting on the posts, on the other hand, would lead to a dominance of the leadership positions by Golkar and PDI-P, the two largest factions in the House.
With the People's Coalition boycotting the meetings, the plenary sessions held on Wednesday and Thursday were attended by five factions only, short of the six factions required by the House's standing orders to make a plenary meeting legitimate.
The Nationhood Coalition and the PKB, however, agreed to amend the standing orders on Thursday to make plenary meetings attended by more than half of all legislators, regardless of the number of factions represented, a quorum and thus able to take binding decisions.
The PPP, meanwhile, said on Friday it had submitted a motion of no-confidence against House leaders for violating the standing orders on the formation of commissions and auxiliary bodies.
"The implication is that we will not attend meetings and consider commission leaders elected by violating the standing orders as illegitimate," PPP secretary-general Lukman Hakim was quoted by Antara as saying.
Saying that all of the other members of the People's Coalition were behind the PPP, Lukman also criticized the House leaders for siding with the Nationhood Coalition rather than attempting to bridge the differences between the two coalitions.
PAN faction chairman Abdillah Toha, meanwhile, urged the government not to send ministers to hold hearings with the House commissions until this controversy was resolved.
Non-governmental activists called on Friday on the Constitutional Court to step in an settle the dispute in the House to prevent the situation from deteriorating.
"It is not only illegitimate (the election of the commission leaders), but the process is a violation of political ethics," said Bivitri Susanti of the Center for Indonesian Law and Policy Studies.
Smita Notosusanto of the Center for Electoral Reform and Firmansyah Arifin of the Consortium for National Law Reform suggested that the Constitutional Court play a role in settling the dispute.