House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Agus Hermanto has called on lawmakers to investigate a meeting between relatives of Vice President Jusuf Kalla and the chairman of the board of Freeport McMoran, James R. Moffett, as soon as the House'€™s inquiry committee (Pansus) looking into Freeport'€™s contract extension is formed.

Agus said he did not want to speculate himself about the meeting involving Aksa Mahmud Jusuf, Kalla'€™s in-law, and Erwin Aksa, Kalla'€™s nephew.

'€œThe special committee will soon be established. Then, we can dig for problems in connection with the Freeport contract extension,'€ said Agus in Jakarta on Tuesday as reported by kompas.com.

Meanwhile, Kalla confirmed the meeting between Aksa, Erwin and Moffett, but stressed that it was nothing out of the ordinary because such meetings were common practice in business communities.

'€œWhat is wrong with such a meeting among businessmen? It would be wrong if they asked for money,'€ said Kalla as reported by tempo.co on Sunday, adding that no '€œpolitical lobbying'€ took place during the meeting.

Kalla has supported the plan by lawmakers to establish a special committee to probe the controversy over PT Freeport Indonesia'€™s contract extension for its gold mining operations in Papua.

Agus said the meeting could well have been just a common meeting among businessmen. But, he added, the special committee had the right to investigate anything possibly related to the Freeport contract extension.

Meanwhile, another House deputy speaker, Fahri Hamzah, said the initiators of the Freeport special committee would collect the signatures of 300 House members.

He hoped that the proposal to establish the committee could be submitted in January, soon after the next House session kicked off. (bbn)

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