TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The defeat of the parties behind presidential candidate Joko Widodo over the revision of Law No.27/2009 does not mean the end of the world. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) can still do something to mitigate the negative impact of the revision.
One day before the presidential election the House of Representatives (DPR) held a plenary session to revise the Law on the MPR, DPR, DPD and DPRD (MD3). One significant change will clearly affect the PDI-P and its coalition partners over which commissions and bodies it will be able to control. According to the old version of the law, the DPR leadership depends on the outcome of the legislative election. The winning party automatically becomes the DPR speaker, while the four deputy speaker positions would have been filled by representatives of the next winning parties.
Based on the revised regulation, the appointment of DPR speaker and leaders of supporting bodies will be done by voting. This will eliminate the PDI-P's chances of leading the legislature during the upcoming 2014-2019 period. That goes for its coalition parties-the National Democrats (NasDem), National Awakening Party (PKB), Hanura and the Indonesian Unity and Justice Party-which stand to lose the chance to head commissions, budget councils and other groups in the DPR.
The defeat of the PDI-P should have been predicted. In the current four-year term, the Gerindra coalition controls 420 seats or 75 percent of the DPR, while the PDI-P camp controls the rest. Its strength may improve later, although it will still remain outnumbered. The Gerindra camp will control 353 seats or equal to 63 percent, while the PDI-P camp holds 207 seats or 37 percent. With such a configuration, the PDI-P will have a difficult time when voting takes place.
This situation is worrying because the next government is bound to have a difficult time in the legislature. Joko Widodo emerged as the winner in the recent presidential election, according to the quick counts. In the DPR, Jokowi's government will face a formidable opposition of much bigger parties. The government's policies will not get easy approval. In fact, the DPR will be obstructive, for example when it approves or disapproves the State Budget.
However, the PDI-P's fate may not be as bad as that of the Democrat Party. The party led by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono repeatedly lost during a number of votes, even though it was supported by the major parties in the DPR. The most phenomenal example was its defeat of the Bank Century case. In other words, even with such a strong position the Democrats were able to be defeated.
This is where the capacity of the PDI-P and supporting parties to negotiate will be tested. They still have time to lure away the parties currently in the Gerindra bandwagon. When that is achieved, the PDI-P will have more room for maneuvering.
However the situation develops, the election of the DPR leadership through voting will be a better process than by appointment. Marzuki Alie of the Democrat Party, who was elected as speaker of the DPRD in this current term, following his party's victory in the legislative elections, proved to be an ineffective legislator.
An intelligent and resourceful speaker of the House can only be obtained through voting, on condition that the voting be done behind closed doors. This is to ensure that the legislators in the DPR will not be tied to the command of their respective factions. (*)
