Jakarta – Vice President Jusuf Kalla expressed disappointment Wednesday after the political parties supporting his government failed to block a petition by the House of Representatives to look into a controversial plan to import rice.
"I didn't expect it," Kalla was quoted by the Tempointeraktif website as saying in Brussels, where he is beginning a week-long overseas trip that will also take him to Finland and Japan.
Kalla, who also chairs Golkar Party, the largest faction in the House, was responding to the lawmakers' decision Tuesday to take the petition to the House's consultative committee.
The decision was taken in a vote during a plenary meeting Tuesday. Two hundred and seven of 374 legislators in attendance supported the investigative motion.
Earlier Tuesday, Kalla said he had no difficulty stopping the lawmakers from going ahead with the petition. "It's easy to settle the matter. I just needed a half hour to meet them at Dharmawangsa Hotel."
He was referring to an earlier meeting at the hotel in South Jakarta between the Vice President and the petition's proponents. That meeting, however, did not stop the Tuesday vote. That poll, which was led by Deputy House Speaker Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno, was greeted with strong opposition from the factions backing the government – Golkar and the Democratic Party founded by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Boy Saul of the Democrats left his seat and approached the speaker's podium, while shouting his opposition to the vote. The vote however continued, despite two delays when Golkar lawmakers demanded it only be open to faction leaders. That appeal was rejected. When they knew they had lost the vote, most Golkar legislators left the House.
Lawmakers opposed to the petition were those from Golkar, the Democrat Party and some members of the Democracy Pioneer Star faction consisting of the Crescent Star Party, the Pioneer Party and the Indonesian Democracy Vanguard Party.
Those in support included legislators from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the National Mandate Party, the National Awakening Party and the Prosperous Justice Party.
These jubilant members stood up and waved to spectators at the end of the vote.
The House will now bring the issue to a meeting by the Consultative Committee on Wednesday, which will decide whether the petition can be discussed again in a House plenary meeting.
If it is approved, the House will set up a special committee to investigate whether there was an abuse of power or other irregularities when the government endorsed the plan to import 110 tons of rice from Vietnam later this month.
A total of 113 legislators signed the initial petition calling for an investigation. They said rice imports would lower prices for locally produced rice, hurting farmers.
The government has defended the plan, saying the imports were aimed at ensuring stable national stocks of rice.