Analyst: Red and White Coalition Launches Scorched-Earth Strategy
15 September 2014 17:48 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The Indonesia Corruption Watch’s (ICW) chief of monitoring and budget analysis division, Firdaus Ilyas, suspected the Red and White coalition was adopting a scorched-earth strategy.
He added that the election of Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) members was laden with co-optation of the coalition’s political interests.
“We need to prevent a possible abuse of power that seeks to launch a scorched-earth strategy,” he told Tempo on Sunday, September 14, 2014.
Firdaus said it seemed that the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party-led coalition aimed at controlling the superstructure of state agencies to cement its footing in the nation’s political arena.
“As the losing side, the Red and White coalition wanted to safeguard its position by ruling strategic bodies,” he said, adding the coalition would proceed with its efforts to undermine the incoming administration through the controversial regional elections bill and the election of the BPK members—after previously attempting to seize parliamentary control with the Legislative Institution Law, or known as the MD3 Law.
“It will be very dangerous if an overseeing body is abused as a political tool to suppress [political foes] or secure a party’s position,” he said.
Firdaus also hoped for immediate revision to the selection mechanism of BPK members, saying that lawmakers should have emulated the selection process of a Corruption Eradication Commission leader, in which a selection committee was established.
DINI PRAMITA
