P

olitical factions at the House of Representatives have agreed to name a politician from the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) to lead a probe into the alleged graft case involving top executives of state port operator PT Pelindo II.

Rieke Diah Pitaloka, a PDI-P lawmaker from House Commission IX overseeing labor affairs and health, won a vote on Thursday to get the position as chair of the newly established special inquiry committee for the Pelindo II case.

Rieke will lead the committee alongside three other deputies '€” Aziz Syamsuddin of the Golkar Party, Desmond J. Mahesa of the Gerindra Party and Teguh Juwarno of the National Mandate Party (PAN) '€” to oversee the National Police'€™s probe into the case and make contributions when necessary.

The decision was made in a closed-door meeting, led by House Deputy Speaker Fadli Zon and witnessed by 16 of the 30 committee members present on Thursday, which also involved a 10-minute lobby session among political party faction members to nominate their candidates. '€œThe decision was made in a fair manner after each faction present submitted its preferences; there was barely any debate or dissent in the process,'€ Fadli said after the meeting.

Fadli added that the committee had 60 days to conduct the probe and the results would be submitted in the next House plenary session as a formal report.

The House became embroiled in the Pelindo case after Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso was removed from his position as the National Police'€™s detective division chief. Budi was removed after police raided the offices of PT Pelindo chief executive RJ Lino at the company'€™s headquarters in North Jakarta in late August.

Following the raid, Lino contacted a number of public officials in protest, with the result that Vice President Jusuf Kalla instructed Budi to drop the case.

Lawmakers then stepped in and the Pelindo case became a political football after reports that Lino could have also been connected to some members of President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s Cabinet.

The PDI-P had already become the obvious choice to lead the probe after taking six seats in the committee, the most for any party faction. Committee membership is based proportionally on the number of seats each respective party has in the House.

The ruling party has also been a strong proponent of the establishment of a special committee from the very beginning, with PDI-P lawmakers targeting State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Rini Soemarno, who is also a party member.

PDI-P lawmaker Masinton Pasaribu, who is on the special committee, was eager to press criminal charges after directing an attack on Rini, insisting that poor management of SOEs was to blame for the graft allegedly committed at Pelindo.

Earlier in the day, Junimart Girsang, another PDI-P lawmaker on the committee, was hopeful that a member of House Commission III overseeing legal affairs, human rights and security would be able to lead the probe, as the Pelindo II case was considered first and foremost a criminal investigation.

Junimart previously suggested upgrading the Pelindo II special committee into a broader-reaching SOEs monitoring committee.

Rieke, who had also supported her commission'€™s own probe into the case, said the commission would announce its agenda next week after consultation among committee leaders.

'€œWe'€™ve received the dossier pertaining to the case, but we need to study the documents [before proceeding with the agenda],'€ she said on Thursday.