Jakarta – The major factions joined forces Tuesday to block a House of Representatives move to investigate the government's failure to recover trillions of rupiah in Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) funds from large debtors.
After 30 minutes of negotiations among faction leaders, held behind closed doors, the House deputy speaker who presided over Tuesday's plenary session, Muhaimin Iskandar, announced the legislative body had been almost unanimous in its rejection of the proposed inquiry.
"The House has agreed to establish a team to monitor the ongoing legal process of the BLBI cases," Muhaimin said.
The National Mandate Party (PAN) was the only faction to oppose the decision.
The House factions had been split over the inquiry proposal, with four major factions challenging the political move.
The Golkar Party, the largest faction with 129 of the 550 House seats, told the plenary session the inquiry was not necessary because the alleged misuse of the BLBI funds was being investigated by the House's Commission III overseeing legal affairs, Commission XI overseeing financial affairs and the Attorney General's Office.
"Commission III and Commission XI are intensively discussing both the legal and the economic aspects of the BLBI case. At the same time, the AGO is continuing the legal process," lawmaker Melchias Markus Mekeng said as he read out Golkar's remarks.
"Therefore, we urge all lawmakers, especially those from Commissions III and XI, to continue monitoring the legal process of the BLBI case and the government's efforts to recover the state assets."
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the second-largest faction, supported Golkar's argument.
"The PDI-P accepts the government's explanations given in previous plenary sessions about the BLBI funds. We are opposed to the inquiry proposal because the government has pledged to resolve the BLBI issue," PDI-P spokesman Tukidjo said.
The BLBI funds were extended to ailing major banks at the peak of the Asian economic crisis in 1997 and 1998, when Soeharto, the chief patron of Golkar, was still in power.
The administration of Megawati Soekarnoputri, the PDI-P chairwoman, was responsible for settling the debts, in which the government awarded the debtors large discounts plus freedom from criminal charges.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) were the other factions that rejected the inquiry move. The four factions control more than half of the seats in the House.
PAN lawmaker Dradjad Wibowo said outside the plenary session the inquiry proposal was dropped during the closed-door meeting of faction leaders. He said a team to monitor the legal process of the BLBI case would not have the authority to influence the course of the investigation.
"Had the House accepted the inquiry proposal, a special committee that could have summoned and investigated anyone involved in this case would have been established. The committee would even have had the authority to ask the police to bring in a person by force if they refused to attend after being summoned three times," Dradjad said.
Also at the plenary session, the House accepted the initiative to summon the government to explain its anticipatory measures to prevent the soaring prices of staple foods.
The lawmakers also heard proposals for inquiries into the government's fuel policy and the alleged transfer pricing involving the country's second-largest coal mining company, PT Adaro Energy. (alf)