The DPR's priorities
As may have been expected, the House of Representatives (DPR) has once again failed to decide on the seemingly simple question of whether or not to form a special committee of inquiry (Pansus) to look into the corruption charges that have been filed against its speaker, Golkar Party chairman Akbar Tandjung. With the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the United Development Party (PPP) and the military/police factions stalling on the issue, it was of course a foregone conclusion that the proposed Pansus would not be established. After all, those three factions -- together with Golkar -- control well over half of the total number of votes in the national legislature.
Under the circumstances, stalling in taking a definitive stand on the issue was for those three factions a better option than an outright rejection of the proposal, which could have given the public the undesired impression that they were blatantly siding with detested corrupt New Order elements of the past Soeharto regime.
This, however, makes it the second time, after a similar decision was taken on March 7, that the House has disappointed those who have been clamoring in the streets for the formation of Pansus. Their argument is that Golkar, as the New Order's instrument of oppression, must be made to account for the crimes and misdeeds ascribed to that regime and its leader, the now ailing former president Soeharto.
The official position taken by the factions opposing such a committee of inquiry, on the other hand, is that the case against Akbar is at present under investigation by the Attorney General's Office and the law must take precedence over politics, and be independent of political considerations.
Extrapolating further, what this argument can be taken to mean is that these factions are unwilling to take the political risks that are involved in acquiescing to the popular demand for an investigation by the House. Golkar, after all controls 120 votes in the legislature, the second largest number after PDI Perjuangan with 153 votes. And, like it or not, Golkar's cooperation is essential to the Megawati government if it wants to maintain the already fragile political stability in this country. Golkar, of course, had made no bones about its intention to go all out in obstructing the committee's formation.
Politics, being as Bismarck said, the art of the possible, it is difficult to predict with any measure of certainty how the issue will unfold from this point onward. However, given the political constellation that exists in Indonesia at the moment it is not at all impossible to believe that a decision by the legislature in favor of a investigation by a legislative committee will be left to dangle, at least until the Attorney General's Office comes out with clear verdict generally acceptable to all.
In the meantime, however, and possibly more important than all this, several important points on the legislature's agenda have had to wait while the House fritters away much of its energy deciding on whether or not a special legislative committee should be established.
With the House scheduled to go into recess next week on March 28, there is not much time left for the legislature to discuss the 20 or more bills that are waiting to be passed. These include a bill to guarantee the free flow of information and another on state secrecy, which has been the subject of some controversy lately. Other bills that have been left waiting to be passed concern subjects ranging from money laundering to the presidency, bank credits and child protection.
Given the huge stockpile of subject matter that needs to be cleared and the shortage of time available, it is high time the House of Representatives started paying greater attention to its priorities. The case involving House Speaker Akbar Tandjung affects the public's sense of justice and needs to be treated with fairness and wisdom. However, it should not stand in the way of completing the legislature's other, possibly more important, tasks.