T

he Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and members of its coalition will challenge the newly approved changes to the law setting the rules of legislative institutions, known as the MD3.

The PDI-P said that as the winner of the 2014 legislative election it deserved the speakership of the House of Representatives.

On Tuesday, a House plenary session approved the changes to the law affecting the country'€™s legislative institutions '€” the People'€™s Consultative Assembly (MPR), the House, the Regional Legislative Council (DPRD) and Regional Representative Council. Among other changes, the new law imposes a voting mechanism for the selection of the House speaker as well as leaders of the House'€™s 11 commissions and other bodies.

'€œI deeply regret the move to change the mechanism. In 2009, we, the PDI-P, allowed the winner of the election, the Democratic Party, to occupy the House leadership because it was ethical. Others should do the same now,'€ PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri said after casting her vote in the presidential election on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Megawati'€™s daughter Puan Maharani, leader of the PDI-P faction at House, lambasted the rule change, which she said was intentionally aimed at sabotaging PDI-P leadership of the House after its victory in the April 9 legislative election.

Puan said the party would file a judicial review with the Constitutional Court.

'€œThe review is not meant to only demand our rights but to honor the decision from the majority of voters, who gave their support to us in the legislative election. With the review, we demand the court reinstate the old law granting the speakership within the legislative institutions to the political party that won the most votes in the election,'€ she said.

Originally billed as an effort to improve its performance, the House assigned a special committee to revise the 2009 MD3 Law, but the resulting amendment instead gives lawmakers greater leeway to escape accountability.

Besides creating the voting mechanism to elect leaders of commissions and bodies within legislative institutions, which will open the door for more political transactions among lawmakers, the revision also eliminated the State Financial Accountability Agency (BAKN), the only department within the House that had received international recognition for its accountability and integrity.

The revision also gives the president the authority to approve investigations into lawmakers at the national level and the home minister into local councillors, as stipulated in Article 220.

'€œThe debate on the speakership is less important than other crucial changes, such as the new law'€™s exclusion of the BAKN,'€ Ronald Rofiandri from the Center for Policy and Law Studies (PSHK) said