Lawmakers are planning to revise an internal regulation so that the next speaker of the House of Representatives is selected via a voting mechanism, instead of the position being automatically granted to the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which secured the largest number of votes in the 2014 legislative election.
The plan emerged amid an ongoing discussion to revise the Legislative Institution Law, known as MD3, a revision that, according to critics, would shut off public monitoring and accountability if approved.
Deputy chief of a House special committee tasked with deliberating the bill, lawmaker Nurul Arifin of the Golkar Party, previously revealed that the majority of the nine party factions at the House supported the proposal, which would place the PDI-P at risk of losing the chair due to a highly fragmented legislature.
“We don’t know where the proposal came from because there has not been a discussion on the matter yet,” secretary of the PDI-P faction Bambang Wuryanto said on Friday.
Bambang, a member of House Commission VII overseeing energy and natural mineral resources, argued that such a mechanism would lead to transactional politics that would damage the House.
“It’s undeniable that vote buying marred the legislative election [in April]. We could now be opening the door for more political transactions via a voting mechanism,” Bambang said.
The General Elections Commission (KPU) revealed the results of the allocation of the 560 seats at the House. In terms of legislative candidates, there was no dominant party in this year’s legislative
election.
Contrary to the 2009 election, which saw the ruling Democratic Party secure 150 seats of the total 560 seats, the PDI-P, the winner of this year’s election, secured only 109 seats.
The PDI-P will still lose the vote to select the new House speaker. Even with the combined legislative strength of all the parties in its coalition — the NasDem Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Hanura Party — the PDI-P will only control a total of 207 seats in the House.
Speculation is rife that the plan was initiated by the Democratic Party, whose lawmaker, Benny K. Harman, led the special committee.
However, party spokesperson Ruhut Sitompul played down the suspicion, saying the plan was instead proposed by the Gerindra Party, which gained the third-largest portion of seats with 73.
“This is politics. The idea [to change the mechanism] came from Gerindra, not us. Both the Gerindra-led coalition as well as the PDI-P-led coalition are our friends,” Ruhut said, adding that his party would comply with any decision.
Although possessing no authority to make decisions regarding the House, the role of House speaker is seen as strategic, as the speaker can direct meetings and introduce the House’s programs to the public.
Ronald Rofiandri of the Center for Legal and Policy Studies (PSHK) suggested that lawmakers first discuss restrictions on the authority of a House speaker to avoid a misuse of power in the future, instead of prioritizing the mechanism
of selection.
“A House speaker ideally acts as spokesperson to introduce the House’s programs and performance. It is a collective collegial post although in practice it is vulnerable to abuse. Thus, it’s urgent for lawmakers to sit down and agree on restrictions for a speaker to avoid an abuse of power,” Ronald said.
Source/Fuente: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/06/07/poll-winner-pdi-p-might-lo...
