Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – Critics say the House of Representatives is out of step with and failing to follow through on popular public opinion of the alleged incrimination of the antigraft body.
Teten Masduki, spokesman for the Indonesian Civil Forum for Emergency Justice, said following a series of hearings with the police, Attorney General's Office and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the House's law commission failed to clarify whether the abuse of power and extortion charges against Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra Hamzah, the suspended KPK deputies, were based on strong evidence.
"Instead, many commission members parroted their party line while others were de facto spokesmen for the police or the AGO," said Teten, who is also the secretary-general of Transparency International Indonesia (TII).
During the hearings, which ended Thursday night, the 55 members of the commission asked mostly unproductive questions that helped both the police and the AGO avoid speaking about the core issues, and the authoritarian-style commission leadership prevented legislators from probing the evidence used to charge the two KPK deputies, some critics have said.
Gayus Lumbuun, a commission member from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), walked out of the hearings in protest at the way Benny K. Harman from the President's Democratic Party led the meeting.
He told The Jakarta Post on Friday the responsibility for the commission's failure to reach a concrete conclusion fell into the hands of its leadership.
During the final hearing, Gayus had threatened to walk out should the attorney general persist in not revealing key evidence to the forum. Benny, the commission chairman, then told Gayus to walk out if he wanted to and that there was no need to "act sensational".
"The main substance of the hearing was to find out whether Attorney General Hendarman Supandji had solid evidence on the existence of Julianto, the missing link in the KPK debacle.
"I insisted on getting a clear answer from the attorney general and he did not give one. The commission chairman then instructed me to cease my line of questioning, and that's why I decided to walk out of the hearing," Gayus said.
"It is undeniable that managing the line of questioning from 55 legislators is not easy. However, the commission leaders should have given more flexibility to legislators to go after substantial and essential issues, otherwise we risk being out of step with public opinion," he added.
Burhanuddin Muhtadi, a political expert from the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), said he regarded Gayus' action as a small ray of light in protecting the public's interest in the hearing.
"I am firmly of the opinion that the hearings were nothing more than a soap opera managed by the House to cover for the police and the AGO while at the same time, tear down the antigraft body," he said.
"However, the public is not stupid. The commission failed to reach its agenda, and instead showed, I'm sorry to say, its own stupidity. Gayus, however, provided the hope that there are still legislators who are sensitive to public interests," he added.
Lili Romli from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) agreed with Burhanuddin and deemed the hearings as both a waste of time and unproductive.
Teten said both the President and the House seemed oblivious to the crisis brought about by the constant undermining of the rule of law by law enforcers, citing the alleged incrimination of leaders of the antigraft body, including dismissed KPK chairman Antasari Azhar, and the Bank Century scandal.
Legislators not in line with public opinion will face the wrath of the public in the 2014 legislative election, he added.