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n a swift move in response to the resignation of former House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto, Golkar Party leaders have decided to switch his role with Ade Komarudin, the party'€™s leader in the House.

The decision was made after a closed meeting late on Thursday attended by party bosses, including chairman Aburizal Bakrie, House Commission XI chair Fadel Muhammad, deputy chairman Titiek Soeharto and senior lawmaker Bambang Soesatyo.

'€œWe have decided to nominate Ade Komaruddin,'€ Aburizal told reporters after the meeting at Bakrie Tower in Kuningan, South Jakarta.

He explained that Ade had a long track record in party politics. '€œHe built his career from very little and over a long time he rose from commission head, secretary and [finally] to faction head. Hopefully [he] will be accepted by other factions as the new House speaker,'€ said Aburizal.

Ade is known to have forged close ties with President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, and the President has often invited him for discussions as well as accepting his invitations to the activities of the Central Organization for Indonesian Employees (SOKSI). SOKSI is chaired by Ade and is a major contributor of votes for Golkar.

Unlike Setya, Ade has openly praised the Jokowi administration and has pledged to extend his support in passing crucial issues in the House. According to a source in Golkar, Jokowi seems to be comfortable with the idea of Golkar being led by Ade.

Ade beat off a strong challenge for speaker from his rival Fadel, who won the most number of votes in the 2014 legislative election.

'€œPreviously the requirements to become House speaker was to have the most votes as well as most experience. That'€™s the fundamental rule of the Golkar Party. But the chairman [Aburizal] has the prerogative [to nominate someone],'€ said Fadel, who was the first one to leave the meeting.

He also pointed out that he had more votes than both Ade and Setya.

'€œIn the past he [Aburizal] said [the party appointed] Novanto and now Ade. Let'€™s just follow [his decision],'€ Fadel said.

Setya resigned from his post, a position he was to have held for the five-year term from 2014 to 2019, in a letter he sent to the House ethics council on Wednesday, immediately before the council was expected to announce its decision on whether to impose medium- or high-level sanctions as punishment for his reported ethical violations. The members of the ethics council all agreed that he had violated ethical standards.

His resignation came as an anticlimactic end to the investigation.

In the letter which was read by ethics council chairman Surahman Hidayat of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), he claimed that his decision was meant to maintain the honor and dignity of the House.

Setya had been in the public spotlight since a report filed by Energy Minister Sudirman Said alleged the Golkar member was engaged in a conspiracy with businessman Muhammad Reza Chalid to extract a stake in PT Freeport Indonesia from the company'€™s president director Maroef Sjamsoeddin in exchange for a promise to extend the gold and copper mining firm'€™s contract to work in Papua.

When asked about the future of Setya, Bambang said that Setya would fill the position of faction leader left by Ade. '€œSo they will switch places,'€ he said on Thursday.

According to Bambang, his party'€™s authority to appoint the new speaker is in line with Article 87 paragraph 4 of the Legislative Institutions MD3 Law which stipulates that the party of the former speaker has the authority to appoint his replacement after a resignation.

However, the nomination of Ade might yet hit an obstacle as opposition parties have urged the House to revise the MD3 Law.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker TB Hasanuddin from the House'€™s commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs said the current MD3 Law did not represent '€œthe voice of the people'€.

'€œThe nub of the problem is the MD3 Law. So, we should fix the error [in the law]. We should refer back to the 2009 MD3 Law so that we can together choose the right individual [to replace Setya],'€ he said.

He acknowledged that the current MD3 Law disadvantaged the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which was the winner of last year'€™s legislative election. (foy)
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