Coalitions to seal deal to protect Jokowi

JAKARTA. After refusing to meet demands from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P)-led Great Indonesia Coalition, the Red-and-White Coalition has agreed to accepting demands to amend part of the 2014 Legislative Institutions Law (MD3).

The agreement was reached during a meeting between two senior PDI-P politicians and members of the Red-and-White Coalition at the residence of National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Hatta Rajasa on Jl. Fatmawati, South Jakarta, on Saturday.

“From this afternoon’s meeting, we have come to an agreement,” Hatta told reporters. “On technicalities, our friends at the House of Representatives will work out the details.”

Hatta said that the Red-and-White Coalition had agreed to omit Article 74 and points 7-8 of Article 98 from the MD3, which are related to lawmakers’ rights in questioning the government.

The Great Indonesia Coalition had demanded that Article 74 and points 6-8 of Article 98 be annulled, saying the articles might lead lawmakers to abuse their power, potentially leading to the impeachment of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

Point 6 of Article 98 obliges officials to obey decisions reached by House commissions. Point 7 stipulates that if the government fails to abide by a decision, commission members can question and probe the government. Point 8, meanwhile, stipulates that the House can ask the President to give administrative punishment to ministers or public officials who fail to follow House orders.

Hatta said that the Red-and-White Coalition agreed to revise points 7 and 8, but not 6, as point 7 stipulated that the House could use its questioning rights regardless of the government’s conditions, even when it had no capability to follow House orders.

As for point 8, Hatta said that giving punishment to ministers was the prerogative of the President, and the House should have no authority to force the President to do so. “If the ministers don’t perform [their duties], then punishment should be given by the President [based on his or her own volition], not because of pressure [from the House],” he said.

Points 3, 4 and 5 of Article 74 carry the same stipulations as points 7 and 8 of Article 98, and were voided. Despite the agreement, the House will keep its questioning rights, since Article 79 and articles 194-227 already stipulate that the House has the right to question, probe and state opinions.

“We don’t need these stipulations because the right to question the government has been enshrined in separate articles of the MD3,” Hatta said. “We deem the right to question [the President] as a binding right of the House. Even our 1945 Constitution has that stipulation.”

The Red-and-White Coalition also agreed to seal a power-sharing deal at the House. The Great Indonesia Coalition demanded that the Red-and-White Coalition give its lawmakers 21 of the 64 leadership posts in the House.

The agreement will be made official in a ceremony at the House on Monday. “We need to inform all factions [in the House] so that there will be no more different opinions and we can be sure that there will be no more additional [requests from us],” said PDI-P politician Pramono Anung after the meeting.

The deal marks the end of the power struggle between the coalitions that came to a head after the Red-and-White Coalition, which secured a majority of House seats, insisted on upholding internal regulations in selecting leaders for internal bodies, leaving no room for Jokowi’s coalition.

Until late Friday, the Red-and-White Coalition balked at the fresh demands of the PDI-P-led coalition. “Many of us could not meet the demands, which keep piling up,” deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Agus Hermanto of the Democratic Party, said on Friday.

Pramono, however, was optimistic that the deal would end the month-long standoff. “We don’t talk any more about rivalries. There is no longer the Red-and-White Coalition and the Great Indonesia Coalition [in the House],” he said. (Hans Nicholas Jong)