Carlos Paath & Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta – When convicted drug trafficker Schapelle Corby was released on parole from a jail in Bali on Monday, it wasn't just the horde of reporters from her native Australia who went into a frenzy.

In Jakarta, politicians have been fuming at what they consider a travesty of the justice system, and are threatening to make the humdrum issue of a convict qualifying for early release a matter of national scrutiny.

Aboe Bakar Al Habsy, a member of the House of Representatives from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said on Tuesday that legislators could invoke their interpellation right on the issue – the House's standard trope for demanding an official explanation from the government on an issue of national importance.

Brushing aside criticism that such a move was overkill, Aboe Bakar said that permitting the release of Corby nine years into a 20-year sentence (reduced to just under 13 following several cuts) was a huge mistake on the government's part and sent out the wrong message about Indonesia's campaign to crack down on drug offenses.

"We'll definitely be talking about Corby's parole in House Commission III" – which oversees legal affairs – "because the government granted it knowing full well that what she did was a very serious crime," he said. "The interpellation issue is one that we still need to discuss further."

Corby was released from Bali's Kerobokan Penitentiary on Monday, following her May 2005 conviction for attempting to smuggle 4.2 kilograms of marijuana into the country in October 2004. One of the conditions of her parole is that she will not be allowed to leave Indonesia until August 2017.

Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin had announced a day earlier that she had qualified for early release, following a string of sentence cuts and based on her behavior while at Kerobokan. He stressed the government had not given her preferrential treatment and that she was part of a batch of more than 1,200 inmates nationwide granted parole.

However, House Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung said the "international lobbying" in recent years by Australia to get Corby released "was plainly visible and undeniable."

"We feel that this decision fell far short of the public's sense of justice," he said on Tuesday. "The government has been duplicitous about this."

Syarifuddin Sudding, a House Commission III member from the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), proposed that a working committee be established to pursue an inquiry into why Corby had been granted early release.

"We'll discuss it immediately at an internal meeting of the commission. We've already talked about it informally," he said, adding that most legislators had expressed disappointment at the "special treatment" given to Corby.

That purported majority did not include Pieter Zulkiflie, the House Commission III chairman, who said all talk of a working committee or government interpellation was excessive.

"They can have their working committee if they want, but I feel it's just too much. We have to respect the decision by the [Justice Ministry], and I for one laud their policy," said Pieter, who, like Amir, is a member of the ruling Democratic Party.