Jakarta – Lawmaker Rieke Dyah Pitalok says the Indonesian government would have had to approve the controversial granting of a University of Indonesia honorary doctorate to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah.

Since the doctorate was granted, the decision by the university rector has been met with heated protests from various groups – angry with the Saudi treatment of Indonesian migrant workers, including Ruyati binti Satubi.

Ruyati, an Indonesian migrant who worked as a maid for a Saudi family, was executed by beheading by Saudi authorities earlier this year after she was found guilty of murdering her employer. Her employer had allegedly tortured her repeatedly.

Rieke, a politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said the University of Indonesia (UI) wouldn't have been able to grant the title without the approval of the Indonesian government.

"The awarding of the title couldn't have been solely UI's business. The [Presidential Palace in Jakarta] must have been involved," she said Monday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Rieke cited several articles in a 1980 government regulation on the awarding of honorary titles, which stipulate that titles such as honorary doctorates can be proposed by rectors but must be approved by the national education minister before they are awarded. "I don't think the government was clueless about this," she said.