Febriamy Hutapea – The House of Representatives special committee is today expected to deliver tentative recommendations based on its investigation into the PT Bank Century bailout and outline its progress to a House plenary session.
But conflicting conclusions, which are expected from the committee, would likely force the House plenary session to put the issue to a vote.
"A House plenary will determine which recommendations will be taken," special committee Deputy Chairman Gayus Lumbuun said over the weekend.
He said there might be three possible conclusions taken by the lawmakers in the committee probing the bailout – accepting the policy, rejecting it or a mix of both.
"It could be black, white or grey," he said, adding that this reflected the current stance of the parties.
He said the different recommendations from a political institution like the House were normal. However, he said he believed committee members still had a strong commitment to investigate the Century case thoroughly.
Democratic Party faction chairman, Anas Urbaningrum, said he was optimistic members of the Democrat's ruling coalition would follow the coalition line.
"The special committee has not concluded anything yet, but I believe that coalition parties will be rational and look at the case clearly," Anas said.
He said Democrats had come to the conclusion that the bailout policy was an urgent decision aimed at saving the country from a possible banking crisis. Several coalition parties have considered giving their blessing to the bailout engineered by Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati. The National Mandate Party (PAN) recently reversed its position and pledged to support the government's view that the bank resuce was necessary.
Taufik Kurniawan, PAN secretary general, said earlier that his party now agreed that the failure of the troubled bank in November 2008 would have posed an unacceptable "systemic" threat to the country's banking system and economy, in essence agreeing that the Rp 6.7 trillion bailout was needed.
PAN is a minor party, with only two votes on the 30-strong special committee investigating the bailout. But those two votes could swing the committee's final recommendation to the full House in Yudhoyono's favor.
Although the position taken by Golkar and Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), both members of Democrats' coalition, was still unclear, Anas said that he believed they would also fall in line with the coalition.
"Indonesia survived the economic, banking and financial crisis because of the government's quick decisions in facing the crisis," Anas said.
Gayus said the House special committee would now undergo an in-depth review and discuss the testimonies given by state officials and experts so far.
If it was deemed that the committee needed additional time to seek clarification from state officials, Gayus said the committee could conduct confrontational sessions whereby two or three officials would be summoned to appear at the same time.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction chairman, Tjahjo Kumolo, said that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) should take over the investigation because there were indications of crime and power abuse revealed by the special committee.
"KPK should follow up the investigation because it has been disclosed based on the testimonies [of state officials]," he said.