Plan to revive faction at MPR hampered
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Negotiations to reinstate the Regional Representatives Faction (FUD) at the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) have made little progress mainly due to the fact that only 73 out of the 130 regional representatives fully support it at this time.
The slower-than-expected progress of the revival of the faction became evident in a meeting of the Ad-Hoc II Committee on Thursday.
The meeting revealed that most members of the committee want all the regional representatives to unite in support of the renewal of the faction.
"If this condition is fulfilled, we will also support the proposal for the revival of the faction. We don't want to see the creation of dual factions," spokesman of the Interest Group faction at the MPR Hamim Thohari said on Thursday, referring to the possibility of the creation of two possibly competing factions if the 130 regional representatives were not united.
Hamim urged the 73 regional representatives who supported the revival of the faction to be patient because the proposal still needed further evaluation.
The assembly currently comprises 500 members of the House of Representatives, 130 regional representatives and 70 personnel from various interest groups. With the dissolution of FUD in 1999, the 130 representatives have joined a faction representing their political party.
All factions at the assembly expressed their support last year for the revival of FUD in a bid to help boost the effectiveness in accommodating the will of the people from remote areas.
Their support manifest itself in Decree No. II/2000 at the MPR. According to the decree, the FUD faction was expected to have been revived during the MPR annual session in 2000.
At Thursday's meeting, however, representatives of the factions required claimed they needed to do more research in anticipation of any impacts that may occur should the Regional Representatives Faction be revived.
Golkar's spokeswoman Komariah Kuncoro said all 130 regional representatives would need to be part of the faction, otherwise there would be no resurrection of the FUD.
Vincent Radja of the United Indonesian Nation (KKI) faction emphasized the importance of reviving the FUD, claiming that at least 107 representatives had shown their support.
"The show must go on... the faction must be revived in the annual session next month in order to accommodate regional representation," Vincent said.
Mardiono from the Indonesian Military (TNI)/Police faction said the establishment of the faction was needed both to help accommodate aspirations and to maintain national unity.
"Should the regional representatives faction be revived, it must fight for the interests of all regional areas," he added.