Anita Rachman – Unsatisfied with the government's response to the House of Representatives findings on the Bank Century scandal, lawmakers on Friday said they would seek to initiate the right to express an opinion, the first step toward impeachment of a president or vice president.
Golkar Party lawmaker Bambang Soesatyo, one of the initiators of the House inquiry, said that starting on Monday, the team of nine that had initiated the probe would begin to drum up support from lawmakers for the move.
The right of expressing opinion is the next step after the use of inquiry rights by the House of Representatives and can also be used to respond to suspicion that the president or the vice president was involved in criminal activity.
In early March, a House plenary meeting voted that the bailout of Bank Century in 2008 violated laws and recommended that law-enforcement agencies investigate indications of corruption, banking crimes and general crimes, as well as any officials deemed responsible for the Rp 6.7 trillion ($723 million) rescue.
The House also found that Vice President Boediono, governor of Bank Indonesia at the time of the bailout, and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, were among the most responsible.
"We haven't obtained the government's feedback on our findings and recommendations, and law enforcement by the Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK] has not been as we have expected," Bambang said after meeting with Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD.
"So far, there has yet been no summons on Sri Mulyani and Boediono. So our voice means nothing" to the government, he said.
The initiators of the probe went to see Mahfud to seek advice on their plan to move with the rights of expression and to also seek the court's support for a related judicial review on the 2009 Law on Legislative Bodies submitted this week by a group of lawyers.
Bambang said the team would need at least 25 signatures from lawmakers to start the process of using their rights to express an opinion. He said he was very optimistic that the team would get the signatures, especially from the seven of the House's nine factions that voted to declare the bailout illegal. Only the Democratic Party and close ally the National Awakening Party (PKB) voted that it was legal.
Burhanuddin Muhtadi, a researcher with the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), said the biggest obstacle would be getting three-quarters of the House to get the necessary quorum to be able to state the rights of expression.
"This is not easy, because the Democratic Party itself accounts for more than one fourth the [House]. If none of the members of Democratic Party shows up in the plenary meeting, the rights to express an opinion will never happen," he said.
"I think this is just part of their political pressure on the president."
A group of lawyers on Monday filed for a judicial review of the quorum issue, arguing that the Constitution only stipulated a two-thirds quorum but the 2009 law put it at three-quarters.