Petition against Akbar ready by Monday, say legislators
Petition against Akbar ready by Monday, say legislators
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Legislators are planning to start the first day of next week by delivering to House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Akbar Tandjung a petition to suspend him, marking the first official move in what could become a political standoff with Akbar's Golkar Party.
Susono Yusuf of the National Awakening Party (PKB) said the petition would be ready by Monday.
"No matter how many signatures we'll have, we are going to hand over the petition on Monday," Susono said on Friday. He is one of the legislators who initiated the petition a week ago.
Susono declined to say how long the list of signatures had grown since about 70 legislators already signed it as of Thursday. The target was to get 150 legislators on the list.
"We don't know whether we'll achieve 150, let's hope so," he said.
Susono and a small band of legislators are drumming up support to suspend Akbar, after a court sentenced him to three years in jail for corruption. Akbar, maintaining his innocence, appealed the guilty verdict and remains the House speaker.
His trial has already been lambasted by the public as a farce. The Golkar chairman was caught giving conflicting statements over his role in a graft case involving Rp 40 billion (about US$4.48 million) in state funds.
Now convicted by the district court, Akbar refuses to resign or temporarily relinquish his position until he has exhausted all legal means, possibly up to the Supreme Court and the President.
"The question we've asked ourselves is; do we want to be led by him?" said Dwi Ria Lativa of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) earlier this week. She called the petition a moral move, but was aware that others, especially Golkar would not be happy.
The petition's fate will be decided at a plenary meeting where House factions will state their responses to the suspension call.
But even if the list exceeds half of the House's 500 members, the road to Akbar's suspension may be bumpy indeed.
Before the petition goes to the plenary meeting, it may end up being pushed aside by the House steering committee, which sets the schedules for such meetings.
Golkar, the House's second largest party, may throw in its weight to call the meeting unimportant and thus delaying it.
This strategy worked when the committee delayed for months plans to hold a plenary meeting that decided whether they should investigate Akbar's role in the graft case.
The meeting eventually took place in July with PDI Perjuangan essentially swinging the vote in Akbar's favor.
Analysts said the shaky alliance between Golkar and PDI Perjuangan were important for maintaining political stability.