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Dems scramble to stop walkout fallout
Jakarta Post - September 28, 2014
The decision by Democratic Party lawmakers, who comprise the largest faction in the House, during early Friday's plenary meeting, led to the victory of the Red-and-White Coalition, which backed the representative-based election mechanism through Regional Legislative Councils (DPRDs).
People have responded angrily to the move, including Twitter users in the country who came up with the hashtag #shameonyouSBY – which became the world's trending topic on Twitter over the weekend – blaming President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for failing to ensure that his party members rejected the proposed bill.
There is speculation that the Red-and-White Coalition, which nominated losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, offered the speaker's position in the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) to the Democratic Party in exchange for its abstention.
To limit damage to its image, the party has called for an investigation into Friday's incident, with the party's central board appointing ethics council head Amir Syamsuddin to lead the inquiry.
Amir said on Saturday that what transpired earlier was "a betrayal to what the party stood for and contradicted Yudhoyono's directive, which supported direct elections with 10 improvements".
"We are also confused about why it happened, although they [the 10 proposed improvements] won the support of another [three parties]." Amir, who is also the law and human rights minister, declined to comment on the claim that the Democrats were offered an incentive to abstain.
Yudhoyono, who was on an official visit to Washington DC Thursday when the voting took place, expressed disappointment with the scrapping of the direct-elections bill.
Democratic Party lawmaker Ruhut Sitompul as well as United Development Party (PPP) secretary-general Romahurmuziy have both hinted that the decision to abandon the vote was part of an elaborate scheme.
Ruhut said the Dems' deputy chairman, Max Sopacua, and House-faction leader Nurhayati Ali Assegaf told them to walk out on the vote after the two received an instruction from Yudhoyono via text messages.
Ruhut claimed that Yudhoyono made the instruction because his 10 proposed improvements had been rejected by the House. Romahurmuziy said Yudhoyono's quick response after the vote was a political gambit to win back public trust.
Meanwhile, Democratic Party deputy secretary-general Ramadhan Pohan denied that the party was offered the MPR leadership in exchange for not voting. "At no time were we promised a reward. We thought that direct local elections could be improved with the 10-point plan," he said on Saturday.
During the plenary, the Democrats insisted the House approve a "third option" as a compromise between the two extreme positions, namely the adoption of its 10 improvements to the direct-election mechanism, which included giving DPRDs the authority to control public reviews.
Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi has said the government initially proposed that the representative-based mechanism should be applied only to gubernatorial elections. However, the government later bowed to lawmakers' demands by offering the option to uphold the direct mechanism for all types of local elections or to introduce the indirect mechanism.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/28/dems-scramble-stop-walkout-fallout.html.
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