Anita Rachman – The House of Representatives on Friday said it would try to raise public awareness of its need for a controversial new office tower in a bid to counter criticisms that the project was unnecessary.

Taufik Kurniawan, a House deputy speaker from the National Mandate Party (PAN), said the House leadership had duly noted the opposition to the project, both from the public and from political parties within the legislature, and would "allow those aspirations to be heard."

"The decision has already been made to build the new office tower," he said. "The recent criticism that has been voiced is something that we will need to resolve without really changing the decision that we've already made."

Taufik said the House would make public "complete information" related to the project in an attempt to "re-educate the people" on why the building was really needed.

The controversy began last year when the House proposed a new Rp 1.8 trillion ($200 million) office building for legislators. After a public outcry, it revised that figure down to Rp 1.3 trillion, while House Speaker Marzuki Alie this month said the cost could go below Rp 1 trillion.

A coalition of six nongovernmental groups, including the Indonesian Civic Network (LIMA), filed an formal objection to the project on Wednesday, calling it an "evil conspiracy" that no amount of public indignation could derail.

Ray Rangkuti, LIMA's director, said on Friday that an awareness campaign was not what the public needed or expected. "All we want is for the House to scrap the project," he said.

Promoting the urgency of the project to the public is futile, he added, because most people are already convinced that illegal money is behind the building.

Ray also cast doubt on the House's willingness to share information about the project. "We demanded that a complete report of all the meetings they've held be posted on their Web site, but they haven't even done that," he said.

"So what 'complete information' will they share with us? These statements only lend credence to the notion that they'll proceed with the plan anyway."

Setya Novanto, the Golkar Party's chairman in the House, welcomed Taufik's news, saying his party was ready to help in the awareness-raising campaign.

He said Golkar's leaders would help get details of the plan out in the media and get the party's legislators to promote the project to their constituents across the archipelago.

Setya said that only by promoting the benefits of the project to the public would it be accepted. "The current office building for legislators can only hold 1,300 people, but there are more than 1,600 of us [including staffers]," he said. "In the future, we'll even have more, so we need more room."