| Home > South-East Asia >> Indonesia | |
Red-and-White Coalition poised to control the MPR
Jakarta Globe - October 6, 2014
Full control of the People's Consultative Assembly by the Red-and-White coalition, known as Koalisi Merah Putih or KMP, is seen by many as part of a master plan to change the Constitution, allowing the coalition to appoint the next president after scrapping direct elections entirely.
The People's Consultative Assembly consists of the 560-seat House and the 132-seat Regional Representatives Council, or DPD.
With the Red-and-White controlling 353 of the 560 House seats, against 207 seats held by the parties supporting President-elect Joko Widodo, as well as Red-and-White politicians' proven negotiation skills, analysts agree that the election process of the MPR leadership is merely a formality.
"They have firm control, and there's no doubt that they will also control the MPR just like when they seized control of the House," Fachry Ali, a senior researcher from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said.
The coalition comprises six parties: Golkar, Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), Democratic Party, Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), National Mandate Party (PAN) and United Development Party (PPP).
Joko's coalition comprises four parties: Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), National Awakening Party (PKB), National Democrats (Nasdem) and People's Conscience Party (Hanura).
After giving Golkar a House speaker post, the Red-and-White coalition will now allocate the post of speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, with four deputies representing the PPP, Golkar, PAN and Regional Representatives Council.
"Yes, [the MPR speaker position] is for the Democrats. That's our plan," said Fadli Zon, Prabowo's right-hand man and now deputy speaker in the House. He said Gerindra would also likely give up its MPR deputy speaker post to keep the coalition solid.
Meanwhile, Hidayat Nur Wahid of the PKS, confirmed that the PPP would likely get a deputy speaker post in the People's Consultative Assembly because the party did not get a House deputy post. "Yes, we have to accommodate the PPP by allocating one post to them," he said.
While the strength of the six-member Red-and-White coalition could boost its chance to capture the People's Consultative Assembly leadership, the Regional Representatives Council could prove to be a stumbling block.
Although Red-and-White has allocated one MPR deputy speaker post to the Regional Representatives Council, this promise will not be enough. DPD Speaker Irman Gusman said the Regional Representatives Council should get the People's Consultative Assembly speaker post because with 132 seats, they are the biggest faction in the assembly.
"It's only logical that we get the speaker post. We are even bigger than the PDI-P's 109 seats," Irman said.
Seeing an opportunity to break Red-and-White's control, Joko's coalition quickly supported the People's Consultative Assembly speaker post going to the Regional Representatives Council, announcing they preferred a consultation process to achieve an agreement rather than using voting to determine the leadership composition of the People's Consultative Assembly.
"This is a middle ground. The speaker will be from the DPD while the deputies can be from the KMP," PKB chairman Muhaimin Iskandar said.
Despite the possibility that the Regional Representatives Council could seize the People's Consultative Assembly speaker posts, the nine candidates proposed by the Regional Representatives Council are mostly Red-and-White supporters, or had prior political links with the coalition.
"So, even if a figure from the DPD become the speaker, the KMP can still be in control," Fachry said.
He said the whole process at the House and the People's Consultative Assembly, which will have a big impact on Indonesia as whole, is determined by the elites and not necessarily what most of the country's people want. "It's an elitist process without anything people can do about it," Fachry said.
Considering the Red-and-White coalition's alleged plan to change the Constitution to allow it to scrap direct presidential elections and impose a system where the president is appointed by the People's Consultative Assembly, Fachry said all Indonesians must be involved opposing it.
"We have seen from one election to another that people will punish those who took away people's rights," he said. "In this case, in 2019 people will not vote for those changing the system from direct to indirect elections."
Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/red-white-coalition-poised-control-mpr/.
See also:
 |