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PDI-P files lawsuit MD3 Law with Constitutional Court
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggleâs (PDI-P) legal team filed a lawsuit over the newly-passed Legislative Institution Law, known as MD3, with the Constitutional Court on Thursday
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T
he Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) legal team filed a lawsuit over the newly-passed Legislative Institution Law, known as MD3, with the Constitutional Court on Thursday.
The party's head of law and human rights division, Trimedya Panjaitan, said it seemed that pressure had been applied for the immediate ratification of the law.
'The House of Representatives approved the MD3 Law on July 8, a day before the presidential election. We consider that the House's approval was forced since the beginning of the process,' he said as quoted by kompas.com at the court in Jakarta on Thursday.
Trimedya said the PDI-P felt unfairly treated with Article 84 (1) of the MD3 Law, which said that the House's board of leaders comprised one speaker and four deputy speakers selected from and by House members. According to Article 82 of the previous Legislative Institution Law, the House speaker was from the election winning party.
'The PDI-P, which won the 2014 presidential election, feels unfairly treated by the MD3 Law, especially by Article 84. Within only a month, they amended the Legislative Institution Law, so now the House speaker position doesn't automatically belong to the election winner,' said Trimedya.
He said another oddity could be seen with Article 97 (2) of the MD3 Law that stipulated that the board of leaders, comprising one chairman and four deputy chairmen, in each commission at the House, was selected in a package and was permanent in nature based on proposals from factions according to the principle of deliberation for consensus.
Based on the MD3 Law, such a regulation was valid only for the House but not for the Regional Legislative Councils (DPRD II).
'Why is it valid only for the House?' said Trimedya.
He said the MD3 Law was approved unilaterally, with House speaker Marzuki Alie passing the law, although several parties voiced disagreement and walked out of the plenary meeting.
'Decisions taken by the law's inquiry committee have all been denied by the Koalisi Merah Putih [Red and White Coalition] member parties,' said Trimedya, referring to the Gerindra Party-led coalition supporting the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa presidential bid. (fss/ebf)
