After a protracted debate, the House of Representatives’ plenary meeting Wednesday gave a resounding vote of no confidence in the government’s decision to bail out Bank Century.

A total of 325 legislators from the Golkar Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the United Development Party (PPP), the Great Indonesia

Movement Party (Gerindra) and the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura), plus a defector from the National Awakening Party (PKB), supported calls for legal measures against those responsible for the bailout, including Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

The two authorized the November 2008 bailout, which increased tenfold from the initial estimate.
It was a major blow for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who had made last-ditch efforts to weather the House’s inquiry into the controversial policy, which was supported by 212 lawmakers from the President’s Democratic Party, the PKB and the National Mandate Party (PAN).

Intensive lobbying to court Golkar and the PKS, Yudhoyono’s two biggest coalition partners, ahead of Wednesday’s vote proved a failure. To make matter worse, another coalition partner, the PPP, jumped to the opposition on the bailout policy.

Chairman of the PPP at the House Hasrul Azwar told the plenary the two recommendations submitted to the House and voted on both “contained truths”.

“They only differ in the way the bailout is perceived and in the disclosure of certain names. The two recommend legal measures to settle the case,” Hasrul said.

The inquiry team proposed two options to the plenary on Tuesday.

The first “Option A”, supported by Democratic Party, the PKB, the PAN and the PPP, said the government’s decision to bail out Century and the earlier decision to disburse short-term liquidity support to the bank were justified, given the economic climate at that time.

In opposition, the Golkar Party, the PDI-P, the PKS, Gerindra and Hanura, all supported the second option, called “Option C”.

It states the government’s decisions to inject Rp 689 billion (US$74 million) of liquidity support and commit to a Rp 6.76 trillion bailout of Century were wrong, and hence the implementation was illegal.

The Democratic Party then proposed an alternative option which combined two conflicting previous options.

Most of the lawmakers, mainly from parties opposing the bailout, rejected the new option, saying it was not a product of the inquiry committee.

“The formulation is not yet clear. It seems like this is another effort to buy more time,” House deputy speaker, Pramono Anung of the PDI-P, said.

Pramono’s colleague Maruarar Sirait said the House’s response to the case was thus far  in favor of the anti-bailout bloc, regardless of the alternative option.

“So all related law enforcement institutions must follow up the House’s final recommendations on the case to the letter,” he said.

The third option forced the lawmakers to go through two rounds of voting to determine its final say on the Bank Century case.

“The first round is to decide whether the new recommendation can be accepted or not,” said one of the House deputy speakers, Priyo Budi Santoso of Golkar.

“If it is accepted, then the second round will feature three recommendations that need to be voted on.”

Outside the House, several clashes erupted between protesters and the police during a rally decrying the bailout, leaving nine demonstrators injured.

Similar rallies took place across Indonesia. In Serang, Banten, five students were injured in a clash between protesters and the police during a rally against the bailout policy.

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