Pro-govt legislators boycott meetings
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Five factions supporting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono boycotted on Tuesday a House of Representatives (DPR) plenary meeting and refused to submit candidates names for the election of committee leaders.
The move renders it almost impossible for commissions and auxiliary bodies to choose their leaders, necessary to draw up their work timetable.
The absence of the five factions -- the United Development Party (PPP), the Democratic Party (PD), the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the Democratic Pioneer Star (BPD) -- raised fears that the maneuver would delay all other activities in the House, including the talks on the replacement of Indonesian Military (TNI) chief.
House Speaker Agung Laksono decided to delay the plenary meeting until Wednesday, but the five factions said Tuesday that they would boycott the meeting until their demands were met.
The five factions, known also as the People's Coalition group, had demanded that commission and auxiliary bodies chairmanships be distributed proportionally among factions, which means bigger factions would get more chairmanships than smaller ones.
All 10 factions in the House had earlier agreed on such an arrangement on Oct. 18, but it later hit a snag as factions squabbled over the leadership of desirable commissions.
That prompted factions belonging to the Nationhood Coalition -- consisting of the Golkar Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, the Reform Star Faction and the Prosperous Peace Party -- to propose that the commission and auxiliary body chairmanships be put to vote.
The National Awakening Party (PKB), which had previously joined the People's Coalition, has thrown its support behind the Nationhood Coalition.
Should the chairmanships be put to vote, the Nationhood Coalition would likely win all the top places in the commission and auxiliary bodies, a situation that could stymie all Susilo's planned reforms.
The People's Coalition's boycott means the members of the Nationhood Coalition can not hold the election as House internal regulations stipulate a plenary meeting must be attended by more than half of the coalitions in the House.
"We have delay the plenary meeting because we cannot make any decisions under such circumstances," Agung said, referring to the meeting that was only attended by five factions.
Under the House's standing orders, a meeting can make decision if it is attended by more than half of the factions or at least six factions.
Earlier, factions in the House agreed that Golkar, which has biggest number of votes will have four commission chairmanship posts and 11 deputy chairmanship posts.
The PDI-P would get three chairmanship and nine deputy chairmanship posts, while the PPP, the Democrats, and PAN would get two chairmanship posts each, with the PKB only one.
The PKB rejected the scheme, claiming the division unfair. Holding 52 seats, it demanded two chairmanship posts, equal to PAN which has 53 seats.
Sources said that the PKB initiated a new scheme and sought support from Golkar and PDI-P factions to sweep chairmanship posts in all the commissions and the auxiliary bodies.
Under the election proposal, Golkar, PDI-P, and PKB would get seven, six, and three chairmanship posts respectively.