Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – Another sex scandal has hit the House of Representatives and may lead to the fall of a legislator as has occurred in two previous instances.
Reports surfaced Friday on social networking website Twitter that an unnamed politician from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party is facing allegations of rape.
An unnamed sales promotion girl allegedly filed a police report against the legislator for rape in Bandung last May, when the Democratic Party held a national congress to elect a new chairman.
An executive of the country's largest party speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed Friday that the party's central board of executives was aware of the rape allegations.
Democratic Party patron Marzuki Alie said, however, that he had no idea about the validity of the information. He said he would ensure that the politician in question would be dishonorably dismissed if the reports were verified.
Marzuki, who is also the House speaker, also urged police to immediately follow up the girl's report. He stressed that the Democratic Party would neither interfere with police investigations nor hamper efforts to verify the claims.
"(The Democratic Party) has a lot of things to do. Let's leave (this rape issue) to the police," Marzuki said Friday.
Deputy House Speaker Pramono Anung from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said that if the allegations were true, the legislator should be severely punished. "He has to be dismissed and punished immediately," Pramono posted on Twitter on Friday.
Sex scandals led to the downfall of two legislators in the previous term.
One of the scandals involved Yahya Zaini, who then headed the religious affairs section of the Golkar Party. A sex video featuring him and dangdut singer Maria Eva was leaked and posted on the Internet in 2006. Following intense media exposure and public pressure, Yahya resigned from the House.
The other case involved Max Moein from the PDI-P, who was depicted naked with his secretary in pictures circulating on the Internet. The House board of ethics, under the leadership of Max's PDI-P colleague, Gayus Lumbuun, dismissed the disgraced legislator after calling him guilty of sexual harassment.
At the start of the current House session, two Democratic Party legislators were implicated in sex scandals but survived due to insufficient evidence.
As if to add insult to injury, one of the House's touch-screen monitors was the target of hackers, who popped up porn websites on it earlier this week.