(Jakarta Globe) Deputy Slots in House Committees Added to Appease "Indonesia Hebat" Coalition

12/12/2018

Leaders of the House of Representatives’ rival coalitions say they have reached agreement on leadership of the House’s commissions and special committees.

“Today there has been an agreement between both sides,” said Pramono Anung, a senior politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), a member of the five-party House minority Coalition that supports President Joko Widodo, on Monday.

Pramono said the Awesome Indonesia Coalition (KIH) has backed down from earlier demands that lawmakers repeat the process of selecting chairs for the House’s oversight bodies. Awesome Indonesia lawmakers attempted unsuccessfully to stop proceedings in which House commission chairs were selected last month by removing a quorum with a walkout.

The minority Awesome Indonesia Coalition, which controls 246 of the House’s 560 seats, subsequently announced it would swear in its own speaker and deputies after moving for a vote of no confidence against the House leadership, which is controlled by the majority Red-White Coalition (KMP) originally formed to support Prabowo Subianto’s presidential ambitions.

The Awesome Indonesia Coalition agreed to end its unrecognized unilateral claim to exclusive control of the House’s leadership, and according to Pramono, accepted the majority’s proposal to add the number of deputy speakers in all 16 of the House’s oversight bodies, which comprise of 11 legislative commissions and five special committees.

“Each of the House’s oversight bodies now have one chairman plus four deputy chairmen,” Pramono said. Originally, the House’s oversight bodies only had three deputy posts.

“There will be a formal agreement signed. The KIH will have 16 posts in the House oversight bodies,” Pramono added.

Idrus Marham, secretary general of the Red-White Coalition’s largest constituent party, Golkar, said the additional seats will be given to Awesome Indonesia lawmakers.

“The KIH will be guaranteed a spot on each commission,” he said. “That is [the Red-White Coalition’s] commitment.”

Idrus added that the new posts would require revision of the Law on Legislative Bodies, known as the MD3, as well as the House’s procedural code. The House will stage a plenary session to discuss “revision of the MD3 Law to integrate … the additional deputy posts,” Idrus said, adding that he hopes all the necessary votes could be completed on the same day “so all the commissions can begin performing their functions.”

Vice President Jusuf Kalla said Joko’s administration will quickly endorse the House’s revisions to the MD3 Law once passed.

“Whatever [the amendment] will be, it must reflect a spirit of togetherness in the House,” he said on Monday. “If the House is split, imagine what will happen to other [legislative bodies].”

On Friday, Jakarta City Council Deputy Speaker Muhammad Taufik said council members plan to establish a Red-White Coalition caucus on the Jakarta City Council.

The KMP Jakarta, the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) council member said, will be launched this week. “The names of the officials will also be announced,” he said.

Taufik said he will chair the new Jakarta City council’s Red-White Coalition caucus, with politicians from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Democratic Party, National Mandate Party (PAN) and the United Development Party (PPP) as deputies.

Golkar politician Zainuddin will be the secretary of the Red-White Coalition’s City Council caucus.

Taufik maintains that PPP is still a Red-White member, despite avowals by party leadership that the PPP defected.

The Red-White caucus’ formation in the City Council offers an ominous foreground for Acting Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama’s inauguration as Jakarta’s Governor, a post earlier held by Joko.

Lucius Karus, a researcher from the pro-democracy group Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian Legislature (Formappi) said the political parties’ polarization is doing more harm than good.

“Important decisions are no longer made [by the House] but by coalition leaders,” he said on Monday, adding that both camps had done more to seize power than balance the government.

Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) political observer Syamsuddin Haris said both sides must realize that power grabs will only damage the House’s image.

“The [Red-White Coalition] may be proud of sweeping up control of all the leadership posts,” but the general public may have a totally different perception of the majority coalition as power hungry, Syamsuddin said.

Bahrain, advocacy director of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, said the legislature’s disorder highlights flaws introduced by the MD3 Law, which revised the earlier practice of awarding the House speakership to its plurality party — and instead put the legislature’s leadership up for a vote among its members.

The current system, Bahrain said, allows just one bloc to control the entire legislature.

“The problem [with the MD3 system] is that we have incompetent political parties and selfish party leaders,” he said. “Therefore there are a lot of deadlocks and no consensus.

“The [House of Representatives] must represent and facilitate all sides. We are seeing [democracy] being destroyed. The kind of politics at play in the House is a transactional one. It is no longer ethical because people’s aspirations have been sidelined and the quest for power comes first.”

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(Jakarta Globe) Deputy Slots in House Committees Added to Appease "Indonesia Hebat" Coalition