(Jakarta Globe) Setya Novanto: No More KIH-KMP Again, Only One House

12/12/2018

The feud between rival coalitions over leadership of the House of Representatives appeared to reach a resolution on Monday, as representatives of both sides signed a limited power-sharing pact.

The agreement between leaders of the Awesome Indonesia Coalition (KIH) that supports President Joko Widodo and the Red-White Coalition (KMP), which supported Prabowo Subianto, was signed at the House of Representatives building on Monday after weeks of tense negotiations .

“We have finally reached an agreement,” House speaker Setya Novanto said. “We can now carry on our duties as one. No more KIH and KMP. Only the Indonesian House of Representatives.”

In attendance at the signing were negotiators of both coalitions, the House speaker and four deputies, as well as and representatives of all ten House party caucuses.

Under the agreement’s terms, the Awesome Indonesia Coalition appeared to have succeeded in extracting limited concessions from the Red-White Coalition, which controls a majority of the House’s seats — and currently all of its leadership positions.

The Red-White coalition agreed to add a deputy chairman position to each of the 17 House oversight bodies, which include 11 legislative commissions and five special committees. These posts are slated to be awarded to the minority coalition in exchange for dropping demands that the House’s leadership be subject to a revote.

To implement the agreement, the House will need to amend the Law on Legislative Bodies, known as MD3, and the House’s rules of procedure. Lawmakers plan to begin debating the amendments today.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla earlier said the president will quickly endorse the House’s MD3 amendments once enacted.

Partly prompting the majority coalition’s compromise was the Awesome Indonesia Coalition’s announcement of its own “shadow” House leadership after a motion of no-confidence in late October.

The minority Awesome Indonesia Coalition, which controls just 246 of the House’s 560 seats, has boycotted nearly all the legislature’s meetings and sessions in an apparent attempt to obstruct deliberations on issues ranging from ratification of a recently passed presidential regulation in lieu of law reinstating regional elections to replacement of the Corruption Eradication Commission’s deputy chairman.

The minority coalition had previously sought amendments to the MD3 Law that would have curtailed the House’s power to instigate the president’s impeachment, a proposal that drew wide condemnation from KMP members and nearly scuttled the power-sharing pact.

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(Jakarta Globe) Setya Novanto: No More KIH-KMP Again, Only One House