Pro-govt legislators boycott meetings

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.