Jakarta – The majority of factions in Indonesia's parliament on Monday rallied behind the idea of a probe into a financial scandal with which its influential speaker has been linked, a move that could boost political instability.

The full parliament has yet to vote on the issue but a majority of the 76 legislators in its consultative body backed the idea of a special committee that would investigate speaker Akbar Tandjung, who also heads the former ruling party Golkar.

Parliament adjourns for a holiday recess from this week with no vote on the matter anticipated, but the 500 members are expected to convene early next year with the issue at the top of their agenda.

"I am very optimistic that the special committee to probe the [financial] scandal will be formed because they [the consultative body] represent [all] factions in the parliament," Firman Jaya Daily, a legislator from President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Democratic Party-Struggle, told reporters.

If the full parliament does go ahead, it will be the second such investigation in its history. The first involved the national food agency Bulog and helped trigger the political demise of former President Abdurrahman Wahid earlier this year.

The latest scandal involves the channeling of 54.6 billion rupiah ($5.3 million) – also from the food agency Bulog – to Tandjung's office when he served as a state secretary in 1999. Tandjung has denied any wrongdoing and said he ordered a charity to use the money to buy staple food for the poor.

The scandal could hurt Tandjung's Golkar party – already tainted due to its past links with the country's former autocrat ruler Suharto – but it could also challenge the government of Megawati, which needs Golkar's support to survive. Golkar is still the second largest party in parliament and many of its officials still hold important posts in government.