The increasingly bitter political battle over the House of Representatives special committee investigation into the Bank Century bailout grew more heated on Wednesday as Golkar Party Chairman Aburizal Bakrie directed fiery comments at President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party after a presidential spokesman suggested that Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati was a candidate for the top job at the central bank.

That comment set off a flurry of speculation that a deal had been reached between Golkar and the Democrats to move Sri Mulyani sideways in a bid to keep her in the government and save her from the wrath of committee members seeking to have her fired.

Aburizal lashed out, saying that he "never threatens others, so don't ever try to threaten me" – an apparent reference to calls from the Democrats to reshuffle the cabinet if members of the ruling coalition, which in theory still includes Golkar, didn't get in line with the position that the bailout was legal.

Sri Mulyani herself has claimed that Golkar engineered the Bank Century probe specifically to target her because she has allegedly angered Aburizal with a number of reform policies, including vigorous pursuit of some Bakrie group companies for back taxes. On Monday, Yudhoyono told police to aggressively pursue tax evaders, a comment analysts believe was aimed at Aburizal.

In a sign that the committee proceedings, which have entered a phase of looking at the money trail after the bailout, could get very ugly, some lawmakers are saying they now feel that the campaign finances of the Democrats are fair game.

One political insider said the political game had become "open war" between the president and Aburizal with no clear end game in sight.

Burhanuddin Muhtadi, a senior researcher with the Indonesia Survey Institute (LSI), said negotiations over the outcome of the special committee's recommendations were now deadlocked over the fate of both Vice President Boediono and Sri Mulyani, arguably the nation's most respect technocrats.

"The heated negotiations have happened because neither side wants to compromise their political targets," Burhanuddin said.

Seven of the nine political parties on the committee last Monday revealed a temporary conclusion that the Rp 6.7 trillion bailout was illegal. Several analysts and politicians have since said that the final conclusion, expected by Monday, could still change based on the events of this week.

Four of the parties – Golkar, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the United Development Party (PPP) – are members of the president's coalition. "It's really difficult to change the temporary conclusion of coalition parties," Burhanuddin said.

Yunarto Wijaya, a political analyst from Charta Politika, agreed but added that while it was still possible to alter the initial conclusion on the legality or otherwise of the bailout, there remained the possibility that negotiations between the Democrats and members of the governing coalition could bring about a last-minute resolution.

"Everything is subject to negotiation," Yunarto said. "The Democrats still have sufficient time to approach all members of the ruling coalition."

Here the role of the PKS could be a major factor, though the faction leaders in the House appear to have dug in their heels and concluded that there were indications of corruption involved in the decision to bail out the ailing bank. Analysis