Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta – Opposition is growing from within the House of Representatives about the controversial plan to build a lavish new office building for lawmakers, but House Speaker Marzuki Alie remains adamant about pushing through with the project.
Three political parties – the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), People's Conscience Party (Hanura) and Great Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra) – on Friday joined the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in demanding the construction be postponed. They called for a special consultative meeting to be held first between all nine factions in the House.
Syarifuddin Sudding, deputy chairman of Hanura's faction in the House, said his party was surprised to hear that the House's leadership was still moving forward with the plan despite the massive opposition to it.
He said the House leadership's refusal to budge on the issue had sparked allegations it might have a "secret commitment" with private contractors interested in running the project.
Mustafa Kamal, factional chairman for the PKS, and Edi Prabowo, factional secretary for Gerindra, said their parties also objected to the plan.
"We want the plan to be postponed and re-evaluated," Mustafa said. "If the plan does not fit with the aspirations of the people, then we agree it should be postponed," Edi added.
Roy BB Janis, chairman of the Democratic Renewal Party (PDP) and a lawmaker in the 1999-2004 legislature, said that the current House building was more than enough to support lawmakers' workloads.
Compared with the legislative buildings in Japan, the United States and Germany, Roy said Indonesia's House building was much bigger.
He suggested the House factions look into replacing members of the Household Affairs Committee (BURT), which prepared and decided on the building plan. "The BURT members failed to listen to what the people want – they must be replaced," he said.
The PKS's Mustafa agreed that the BURT also needed to be re-evaluated, saying most of the committee members seemed to be more interested in construction projects than performing their duties as legislators.
"We can see that the House speaker, who is also ex officio chairman of the BURT, is now more busy talking about the building plan," he said, adding that any technical affairs related to House construction projects should be handled by the secretariat general and other government departments.
Arwani Thomafi, a BURT member from the United Development Party (PPP), however, said that most of the leaders of the House factions had already known about the building plans and none had opposed it.
"That's why we were very surprised to hear that many factions suddenly rejected the plan, pretending to know nothing about it," he said.
Arwani also denied allegations that BURT members had been bribed by private contractors involved in the tender process. "We have never dealt with the technical side of the building plans. That's worked out by the related government departments," he said. "The final budget for the plan was decided by the Ministry of Public Works."
But Mustafa rejected Arwani's claims, saying that he, as head of the of PKS's faction in the House, had never received reports detailing the building plans.
"How could they say that the building plans had been reported to us? Even the House leadership said they know nothing about plans to include a spa and swimming pool in the new building's design," he said.
"Lawmakers in the BURT should not claim that all factions had approved the plan. They should tell us the details and hear our opinion first before making a final decision."
House Speaker Marzuki Alie, from the ruling Democratic Party, on Friday claimed that none of the factions were seriously opposed to the plans.
"They only object to the plan to include spa and swimming pool facilities in the proposed new building," he said, adding that the spa and swimming pool would not be included in the final plans.
Budi Sukada, the architect heading the team overseeing the building's design, told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday that the building would have a swimming pool, a gym and health spa facilities, in line with government regulations regarding a building of that size.