Battle rages for House leadership

JAKARTA. After the controversial passage of the Regional Elections (Pilkada) Law, another challenge looms for president-elect Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and vice president-elect Jusuf Kalla as the Red-and-White Coalition sizes up leadership of the new House of Representatives.

With the newly endorsed law on legislative institutions, known as MD3, as yet unchallenged, the opposition will wield power over all of the House’s internal bodies, from the speaker posts and leadership of the 11 House commissions to the budgetary committee, the legislative body and the honorary council.

A document believed to be an agreement among members of the Red-and-White Coalition revealed the planned distribution of House leadership positions among members of the coalition. Golkar Party deputy chairman Fadel Muhammad, who is also a House speaker candidate, confirmed that such an agreement existed.

The distribution is proportional according to each party’s number of legislative seats, allowing factions within the coalition to take turns picking their preferred House commissions as well as the leadership posts of other House bodies.

Golkar, for example, which secured 91 seats, the most among the coalition’s members, will get the chairmanships of five internal House bodies, and 15 deputy chair positions. The Gerindra Party, with 73 legislative seats, will be granted four chairmanships and 12 deputy chair positions.

Meanwhile, with 49 seats, the National Mandate Party (PAN) is to be allocated three chairmanships and eight deputy chair positions. The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which secured 40 seats, gets two and seven, respectively, while the United Development Party (PPP), with 39 seats, gets two and six.

With the Constitutional Court recently upholding the voting mechanism for the selection of House speaker, Golkar will secure that post, while members of four other opposition parties will be given the deputy speaker positions.

Along with Fadel, several senior members of Golkar have been touted to fill the House speaker post, including Setya Novanto, a businessman and senior lawmaker who has served in the House since 1999.

“House leadership positions are strategic for determining the House’s agenda,” Pol-Tracking Institute executive director Hanta Yuda said.

Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, a political researcher with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said that the Red-and-White Coalition could hold Jokowi’s administration hostage if they secured the entirety of the House leadership.

“The Red-and-White Coalition can demand that their agenda and interests be prioritized by the government under threat of the House not approving government programs. That’s only one example,” Ikrar said.

In control of 292 of the total 560 seats in the newly inaugurated House, the Red-and-White Coalition might easily impose bills that require a voting mechanism for approval.

Golkar deputy secretary-general and reelected lawmaker Tantowi Yahya, for example, said that the coalition had compiled a list of laws that needed review due to their “favor of foreign agencies”.

The Democratic Party, meanwhile, could side with the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in the election of the House leadership and chairmanships of House bodies. “The Democratic Party has said it wants to be a balancing power. This is their chance to keep the balance [by joining us to propose a draft of House leaders],” PDI-P executive Pramono Anung said.

The PDI-P, for its part, has named several candidates from its central executive board to be House speaker, including Puan Maharani, Tjahjo Kumolo and Pramono himself. 

Meanwhile, Jokowi indicated that he was prepared for any eventuality.

“I’m not worried at all,” he said.

Kalla said on Tuesday that although he regretted the passage of the new mechanism to establish House leaders, he, too, was not overly concerned.

“The House speaker cannot make decisions alone. Decisions have to be collective,” he said.

It was also not a problem if the coalition tried to make it difficult for the government to pass new laws, Kalla claimed. 

“Our country has a presidential system. Therefore, the MD3 law does not diminish the government’s authority,” he said. (Bagus BT Saragih and Margareth S. Aritonang)