(Jakarta Globe) House Calls President to Discuss Ministerial Meeting Ban

12/12/2018

House of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto said he had contacted President Joko Widodo and asked him to revoke an earlier instruction barring his ministers from attending any legislative hearings.

“I called [Joko] at 10 p.m. [on Tuesday night]. I told him it would be better that the administration and the House be together again,” Setya said on Wednesday.

The Golkar Party politician intimated House lawmakers may withhold funding if the president continues to obstruct the legislature’s oversight of ministries. Joko’s order enjoining ministers from House proceedings will only hurt the administration’s performance, Setya said, adding that the president’s administration depends on the budgeting function vested in the House.

“Indonesia’s economy will accelerate if ministers are soon able to attend [oversight] commissions’ hearings at the House of Representatives,” the speaker said.

In a Nov. 4 memorandum issued through Secretary of the Cabinet Andi Widjajanto, the president instructed all of his ministers not to attend House hearings, pointing to then-ongoing disputes between the minority Awesome Indonesia Coalition (KIH) that supports his administration and the majority Red-White Coalition (KMP), which does not.

Precipitating the order was an ongoing dispute over House leadership positions in which the Awesome Indonesia Coalition lawmakers boycotted the legislature’s sessions and hearings, barring a quorum.

Both sides agreed to terms for ending the dispute, but with demands by Joko’s minority coalition as yet unfulfilled, resolution appears far from over.

“If we [stage House hearings] now, not all [parties] will attend them,” Vice President Jusuf Kalla said.

Justice and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly was supposed to attend a hearing with House Commission III, which oversees his ministry, but failed to attend. Also a no-show at a scheduled hearing was State Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno, who went a step further, barring all top officials and SOE directors under her authority from attending House hearings.

House Deputy Speaker Fahri Hamzah said House Commission II, which oversees home affairs, would summon cabinet secretary Andi for questioning as to the legality of the president’s order. It’s unclear if the cabinet secretary himself is bound by the order he issued on Joko’s behalf, but if so, Andi is unlikely to comply with the House summons.

Lawmakers are also eager to quiz administration officials over the recent price hike for subsidized fuels. Golkar’s Aditya Nugra Moha said over 200 lawmakers petitioned the House speaker to launch a formal inquiry.

“House hearings are the best channel for the administration to explain their reasons [for the fuel price hike] in detail. Why we need to do this? Because ministers are barred from coming to the House. The right of inquiry is a way [to compel] the administration to explain its decisions,” he said.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said argued that the president’s order was issued not because the government is afraid of legislative inquiry.

“The House has a job to provide inputs through inquiry or whatever it’s called. We respect that. The administration’s job is to respond it. I’m sure all administration officials are ready to respond,” he said.

The minister did not disclose what the right time would be or if that means waiting for resolution between lawmakers’ rival coalitions to be “finalized” again.

Joko’s minority Awesome Indonesia Coalition earlier agreed to drop all unlawful claims to control of the House’s leadership in exchange for a minor power-sharing concessions from the KMP majority: the creation of one deputy chairman post in all 11 House commissions and the five special committees, all slotted for minority coalition lawmakers.

The deal requires amending the Law on Legislative Bodies or MD3 Law , enacted in July, that put the House’s leadership to a vote of its members — and effectively in majority hands.

But that amendment was postponed on Wednesday as some KMP lawmakers questioned its purpose and others arguing the House should first seek input from the Regional Representatives Council (DPD), Indonesia’s upper cameral equivalent of a Senate.

“We want consolidation [between KIH and KMP], but we don’t want this amendment resulting in a spat with the DPD,” the National Mandate Party’s (PAN) Yandri Susanto said.

The House’s plenary session adjourned on Wednesday without resolving whether the amendment will ever be deliberated.

“At the end of the day, the dispute inside the House will never be resolved,” Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle’s (PDI-P) Arief Wibowo said. “The longer the DPR postpones [deliberating the MD3 Law’s amendment], the longer the House cannot perform its functions.”

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(Jakarta Globe) House Calls President to Discuss Ministerial Meeting Ban