Indonesian parliament votes in favor of questioning President

The Indonesian Democracy Party-Struggle (PDIP) faction, the largest in the DPR, has spearheaded efforts to summon the President over the sacking of Laksamana Sukardi as investment and state enterprise minister and Yusf Kalla as industry and trade minister.

Sukardi is a PDIP member, while Kalla is a member of Golkar, the ruling party when former President Suharto was in power and currently accounting for the second largest faction at the DPR.

“Before the end of the week, PDIP will summon its members, both those who voted against and abstained, to explain their stance because it ran against the stand of the party,” PDIP faction leader Arifin Panigoro said after the vote.

PDIP sources said that at least one of its members had voted against the interpellation. The great majority of those who abstained were from the military faction, which holds 38 seats at the DPR. The 34 MPs from the military faction present at the plenary session all abstained, sources said.

Most of those who voted against were from the National Awakening’s Party of the Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Islamic group that Wahid chaired until his appointment as President in October.

In a controversial move, Wahid in April dismissed both Sukardi and Kalla for what he called a “lack of cooperation” with the rest of his economic team. But a controversy developed in May after the President told the legislature that both former ministers were also guilty of corruption, collusion and nepotism.

The dismissal is rumored to have harmed Wahid’s relationship with Megawati Sukarnoputri, his Vice-President, who heads the PDIP. The PDIP has argued that the motion to call Wahid to account had to be exercised not specifically because of Laksamana Sukardi’s dismissal but because of the “inconsistency” of excuses given by the President — an indication that Wahid might have lied to the public. The date and procedure for summoning Wahid have yet to be discussed by the Parliament, Panigoro said.