An opposition party, the Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), and a governement coalition member, the United Development Party (PPP), have confirmed their rejection of the proposal to establish a legislature inquiry on tax mafia.
"The decision has been fixed. Our party rejects the proposal," Gerindra's Martin Hutabarat told journalists at the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
A number of Gerindra lawmakers initially endorsed the proposal. Their stance, however, changed after Democratic Party's chief patron, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, reportedly met with Gerindra chief patron Prabowo Subianto.
Another Gerindra lawmaker, Ahmad Muzani, however, denied its sudden change had been made due to political deals with the ruling Democratic Party.
"We just think that the inquiry could be used as political tools by certain parties. It would be better if we left tax cases to law enforcers," he said.
PPP deputy secretary-general M. Romahurmuziy said that his party had also decided to reject the proposal. "The inquiry could be abused by Golkar to clean its image after its chairman [Aburizal Bakrie] was implicated in a number of tax scandals," he said.
The House of Representatives is now holding a plenary session to endorse the proposal.
According to the 2009 Legislative Bodies, an inquiry can be endorsed only if it has approval from more than half of the lawmakers attending the plenary.
Gerindra and PPP's decision to reject the proposal may see the plenary drop the proposal.
There are four political parties left that still support the proposals: the Golkar Party, the Prosperous and Justice Party (PKS), the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) .
All four parties hold 277 seats at the House, three seats shorts of 280 seats, or half of the total 560 seats there.
With addition of Gerindra and the PPP, there are now five parties that may reject the inquiry proposal. Parties that have been against the proposal since the beginning are President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN) and National Awakening Party (PKB). All five parties have 283 seats at the House.
