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n desperate moments we discover our true friends in those who stand up for us, and House Speaker Setya Novanto may feel assured he does have a few of them around. The trouble is that fellow lawmakers at the House of Representatives continue to hem and haw to the disgust and ridicule of many, thus risking any remaining shreds of their own credibility.

Setya of the Golkar Party is in dangerous water, suspected of being one of the voices in a taped conversation involving PT Freeport Indonesia, a local unit of US-based Freeport McMoran, the transcript of which has been circulated far and wide following a report of Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said to the House ethics council. Setya is suspected to have joined with oil and fuel businessman M. Reza Chalid in a meeting with Freeport Indonesia president director Maroef Sjamsoeddin at a Jakarta hotel.

Oh, he was only joking, says one lawmaker, about the conversation in which President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo is said to most likely agree on a deal for the construction of a smelter by Freeport; and in which he encourages a share allocation for Vice President Jusuf Kalla and Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan.

Oh, Setya has only been leading for a year, give him time, says another House member. The problem is that honorable House members cannot afford to joke around while treading on highly risky ground. Freeport is still trying to get its contract extended to exploit one of the world'€™s largest gold deposits located in Papua.

People laughed out loud when the President seized the opportunity to jest about the meme '€œpapa minta saham'€ (Daddy asks for shares) in light of the emerging parodies of the taped conversation.

But the jokes about Setya insult the entire electorate, 14.75 percent of which voted for his Golkar party, which came second in last year'€™s legislative elections with nearly 18.5 million votes. The speaker must step down as the ethics council probes his case. Setya was already reprimanded regarding his jaunt earlier this year to the US, where he accompanied Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump at a press conference with other Indonesian lawmakers. A warning from the ethics council has seemed to have had no effect on the speaker of our representative body.

We uphold the principle of the presumption of innocence, but would not be surprised if Setya claims to follow in the footsteps of his forebears '€” that he is not seeking personal enrichment from any deal, but is upholding the needs of his political party, though he claims that the '€œwelfare of Papua'€™s people'€ is one of his priorities.

In Indonesia'€™s political cobweb the Freeport episode is providing another complex picture of political and business interests left and right. We are yet to see who else will be dragged down as a result of the high level lobbying ahead of the decision to extend, or not extend, the mining company'€™s contract. But as the face of our representatives, Mr. Setya, it'€™s time for you to step down.