Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The House of Representatives decided Thursday to suspend finalizing its proposed interpellation motion over the Sidoarjo mudflow after the House Consultative Body agreed not to include the issue in Friday's House closing plenary session.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and National Awakening Party factions were the only groups that proposed the interpellation motion be included in Friday's plenary session, House Deputy Speaker Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno said after the consultative body meeting.
Thursday's postponement was the second such occurrence after legislators failed to reach an agreement on the motion during a plenary session Tuesday.
"The majority eight factions want the motion to be decided after the recess period because Friday's plenary session focuses on the endorsement of two new bills and on a closing address for the current sitting period," he said.
The House is scheduled to approve bills on excises and limited companies, and to hear House Speaker Agung Laksono's closing address to this year's third sitting period. The House will assemble again in mid August.
Signed by 225 legislators, the motion pushed for an official explanation from the government over its slow handling of the mudflow at the mining site of Lapindo Brantas Inc. in Sidoarjo, East Java, and of thousands of displaced residents and their damaged assets.
The mudflow, caused by gas and hot-mud leaks in May 2006, has been flowing for more than a year. The government has not managed to stop the leakage or fairly compensate affected residents.
Yuddhy Chrisnandi, an initiator of the interpellation motion from the Golkar Party, confirmed that his faction would prefer the fate of the motion to be decided after the House's recess period. He insisted that Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who chairs Golkar, had asked that his faction give its full support to the motion.
"It is only a matter of time; but our faction fully supports the interpellation motion," he said.
Abdillah Toha, a National Mandate Party legislator, said he expects the President will provide an explanation of the government's handling of the mudflow in light of a recent agreement between the House and the government to try settle the issue.
"After recently bringing the friction between both state institutions to the Constitutional Court, both the government and the House agreed to have the President give the government's reply to the House's interpellation motion," he said.
Representatives from a number of factions at the House appealed to the Constitutional Court after the President refused to personally explain the government's support for UN Resolution 1747 imposing sanctions on Iran for its nuclear enrichment project.