(Jakarta Post) Coalitions agree to end rift, pledge to work in harmony

12/12/2018

two opposing camps at the House of Representatives agreed on Monday to work in harmony for the sake of the Indonesian people that voted for them in April’s legislative election.

Golkar Party secretary-general Idrus Marham, who represented his party, which leads the opposition Red-and-White Coalition, met Pramono Anung Wibowo and Olly Dondokambey, two senior members of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the leader of the ruling Great Indonesia Coalition.

The meeting was held on Monday afternoon at the office of House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto, who is also Golkar treasurer.

Idrus revealed that both coalitions had committed to improving the House’s performance after more than a week of paralysis due to a struggle over the control of commissions and internal bodies.

No documents, however, were signed at the meeting, as had been earlier hinted at by Pramono.

“We promise that within a day or two, everything will be settled. Matters will be finalized during a plenary session [of the House] on Thursday,” Idrus said.

As well as promising to work in harmony, the two coalitions agreed that both camps would be represented in the chairmanships of the 16 commissions and internal bodies.

They have also decided to revise the 2014 Legislative Institutions Law (MD3) and internal House regulation during Thursday’s plenary session to allow the increase of deputy chair positions from the existing three posts to four.

Pramono, who has been very active in efforts to bring an end to the deadlock, said he expected the amendment of the two guidelines to be completed before Dec. 5.

“The deal is to respect each other. This will be reflected in the final structure of the House’s internal bodies, which will include both the Red-and-White Coalition and the Great Indonesia Coalition,” Pramono said after Monday’s meeting.

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Both Idrus and Pramono said there would be no additional House commissions or internal bodies.

The rivalry between the two camps became heated after the Red-and-White Coalition, whose member-parties control the majority of House seats, insisted on upholding an internal regulation regarding the selection of leaders for all internal bodies, squeezing out Jokowi’s Great Indonesia Coalition.

The paralysis caused by the rift has prevented the House from updating the administration on its plans, which the Regional Representatives Council (DPD), the other legislative institution, began to do last week.

Golkar executive and lawmaker Fadel Muhammad said on Monday night that the signing was merely ceremonial “but the points of the truce have been agreed”.

Fadel said that the Great Indonesia Coalition would get deputy chair seats in the 16 internal bodies, including the five most important, such as the household and budgetary committees.

Meanwhile, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said he supported every decision the two camps made during the negotiations.

“Alhamdulillah [Praise God] it [the unity] is what [we were] expecting all this time […] so that the House can become an example for the people,” said Kalla, who is also a former Golkar chairman. “The government is currently working. Of course, it is best to have proportional [separation of power between the executive, legislative and judicial] roles.”

However, a group of civil society organizations warned that adding extra deputy chair positions in each of the House’s internal bodies was not the answer to end the rift, arguing that such a move would only lengthen the decision-making process of the internal bodies.

Representing the group, Ronald Rofiandri said they should revise the two regulations to accommodate the proportionality principle in the selection mechanism of the House speakership and the leadership of its internal bodies through a mu-syawarah mufakat (deliberation for consensus) instead of nominating and voting on leadership packages.

“The amendment should open the door to bringing back the rule of proportionality in the selection mechanism,” said Ronald from the Center for Law and Policy Studies (PSHK), which often criticizes lawmakers’ poor performance.

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(Jakarta Post) Coalitions agree to end rift, pledge to work in harmony