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Jakarta Post

New members of parliament sworn in, vow integrity

All 560 legislators and 128 out of 132 regional representatives winning seats in the April 9 legislative elections took their oath before the chief justice on Thursday

(The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, October 2, 2009

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New members of parliament sworn in, vow integrity

A

ll 560 legislators and 128 out of 132 regional representatives winning seats in the April 9 legislative elections took their oath before the chief justice

on Thursday.

Four regional representatives from Papua had their inauguration delayed since their victory has yet to be confirmed by the President due to election disputes in the province.

All new legislators and regional representatives were also sworn in as members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the highest lawmaking institution.

They pledged to fight for the people's interests above their own and their parties'.

Anas Urbaningrum, a Democratic Party legislator from East Java electoral district, said his party and "green parties" would maintain the House's integrity in its constitutional tasks although they constituted a major coalition in parliament.

"The public worry that the major coalition will bring the parliament and the government back to the New Order era is unfounded," he said after the ceremony.

"Both the executive and legislative bodies will run in their own ways to build a civil society under the monitoring of media."

As winner of the legislative election with totally 148 seats in the legislative body, the Democratic Party appointed their secretary-general, Marzuki Alie, as House speaker.

He has four deputies, namely Priyo Budi Santoso from the Golkar Party, Pramono Anung from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Anis Matta from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Marwoto Mitrohardjono from the National Mandate Party (PAN).

The MPR will hold its plenary session Saturday to elect its chairman and four deputies.

The Democratic Party-led coalition has pledged support for the nomination of PDI-P patron Taufik Kiemas for the MPR's top post while the Regional Representative Council (DPD) will nominate its candidates for the MPR leadership today.

Both the PKS and the PPP were still lobbying for other parties to support their own candidate for the assembly's chairmanship post.

Taufik, husband of PDI-P Chairwoman Megawati Soekarno-putri, said his party would join the government's coalition if the latter supported his MPR chair-manship bid.

The PKS has claimed support from President Yudhoyono and his Democratic Party for its candidate Hidayat Nur Wahid while the DPD was expected to nominate its former chairman Ginandjar Kartasasmita.

"I do not want to consider Pak Ginandjar and other nominees as my enemies.," Hidayat said.

"I treat them as my friends in the competition."

He predicted the future political landscape could cause Islamic nationalist parties to confront each other head-to-head.

"This likely to take place if we maintain our coalition," he said.

"However, I don't really like to make a dichotomy between the two. Islamic parties have national attachments, and vice versa."

Separately, a new legislator from Golkar, Tantowi Yahya, declined to predict the political dynamics in the parliament because both Golkar and the PDI-P have yet to decide their position.

Golkar's position will likely be decided in the incoming national congress in Pekanbaru.

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