Prabowo's Coalition Ready to Submit Interpellation Proposal
26 November 2014 16:38 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A total of 157 parliamentarians from four factions in Prabowo Subianto's coalition party have signed an agreement to support an interpellation rights over President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's decision to increase the price of subsidized fuel.
"The support will be submitted to the House Speaker on Wednesday, [November 26, 2014]," said Muhammad Misbakhun, an initiator of interpellation rights from the Functional Group Party (Golkar) faction on Tuesday, November 25, 2014. According to Misbakhun, before submitting the agreement, all 17 initiators will look for additional support.
Out of 157 signatories, 50 from Great Indonesian Movement (Gerindra) faction, 53 from Golkar faction, 23 from National Mandate Party (PAN) faction and 23 from Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) faction. With the addition of Democrat Party, the coalition has over 353 seats in the parliament. "We have asked whether the Democrats would join, but there is no answer yet," said Misbakhun.
With the number of support, one of the requirements to exercise interpellation rights of the House of Representatives (DPR) has been fulfilled. According to the law, the interpellation rights must be initiated by at least 25 members of DPR from more than one faction.
Ecky Awal Muharram, a PKS politician responsible for the interpellation, said that Prabowo's coalition as the opposing party has prepared a series of statements. He added that each faction has different statements. "The government must be transparent, is the policy in accordance to energy governance, is there no other alternative?" he said.
Deputy House speaker Agus Hermanto said that the proposal to use interpellation rights must be validated by the House Speaker before being consulted with the consultative body. Lastly, the proposal will be discussed at the parliamentary session.
Arif Wibowo, a politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that his faction would reject the interpellation proposal at the parliamentary session. According to Arif, if the interpellation right is approved, it will create political chaos. "We are currently consolidating to a more solid DPR," he said. PDI-P along with four other factions which support Jokowi only made up 207 seats in the parliament.
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