The DPR's priorities

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.