Jiwasraya has been in the spotlight since it announced its inability to pay out on matured JS Saving Plan policies worth Rp 802 billion (US$57.6 million) in October 2018. It was also unable to pay holders of integrated life insurance policies and investments worth Rp 12.4 trillion that were supposed to be paid in December 2019.

Four of the six progovernment parties had initially expressed the urgency of establishing a special committee, or Pansus, to inquire into the case at the House of Representatives. However, they backtracked following disapproval from the government and reportedly a request not to allow such a probe to be set in motion.

Two parties outside the government coalition, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the Democratic Party, meanwhile, have submitted a proposal for the establishment of the committee, demanding an investigation into where the money went following an allegation that Jiwasraya’s financial shortfall was a result of misappropriation in order to fund President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's campaign in the 2019 presidential election.

"If this was merely an ordinary criminal case, law enforcement authorities could have resolved it. However, we suspect something political in the case," Democratic Party lawmaker Benny K. Harman said on Tuesday.

“We have to make it clear because there is an allegation that the money was used to fund a campaign. The public needs clarity so there will be no more prejudicial speculation.”

The Democrats and the PKS have secured 104 lawmakers’ votes for the Pansus’ establishment. However, inquiry rights can only be passed with approval from more than half of the 575 House members.

The government has also insisted on not bailing the insurer out and, instead, will work on other options to rescue the company and ensure payments to its customers, including by establishing an insurance holding company and a subsidiary, Jiwasraya Putra, to provide a cash flow to Jiwasraya.

Both the government and the ruling parties have said that such an inquiry would only embroil the case in political controversy, saying that everyone should instead focus on efforts to return the customers’ money.

Amid debate about whether or not to establish the Pansus, three House commissions have formed three separate working committees to work on the case — all led by lawmakers from the ruling parties: the Golkar Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). House Commission XI overseeing financial affairs is focusing on ensuring affected policyholders get their money back; Commission VI overseeing state-owned enterprises is looking into the performance of the company along with that of another troubled state-owned insurance company PT Asabri and Commission III overseeing legal affairs will monitor the work of the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), which has named at least six suspects in the case.

"Let the three working committees work on it,” House Speaker Puan Maharani of the PDI-P earlier said.

PKS lawmaker Ecky Awal Mucharam warned of the ineffectiveness of the three working committees, insisting that a House Pansus would be a better choice in probing Jiwasraya.

Democratic Party chairman and former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called for the government to investigate the case to prevent unhelpful public speculation.

He recalled that he had been in the same position as Jokowi when resolving the Bank Century scandal during his tenure, in which he was suspected of using the embezzled money for his 2009 presidential campaign. The House launched a legislative inquiry into the Century case in 2010 that almost led to Yudhoyono being impeached.

"Therefore, to maintain the reputation of the political parties and the President himself, an investigation into this matter should be carried out. […] I am personally not sure if Jokowi’s team was taking benefits from it [Jiwasraya]," he wrote on Facebook on Jan. 27.

The deputy chairman of progovernment Gerindra, Arief Poyuono, was among the first to suggest that the Jiwasraya case was related to Jokowi-Ma'ruf Amin’s candidacy in the 2019 presidential election, given that Jiwasraya's former finance director Harry Prasetyo was also an expert staff member for strategic economic issues at the Executive Office of the President during Jokowi's first term.

But another Gerindra deputy chairman Fadli Zon said that his party had now decided to oppose such an idea following “a request from the government”.

"There was a demand [to do so] as we are now a part of the government coalition. Therefore, we’ve changed our stance," he said adding that forming the Pansus would be a losing battle for its former allies, the PKS and the Democratic Party, without Gerindra's support for their proposal.

The NasDem Party, another progovernment party that had previously voiced the urgency of creating the inquiry committee, has also backpedaled, with politician Taufik Basari saying it would rely first on how the three House committees worked in resolving the case.

The same goes for the PKB — after initially demanding the creation of the Pansus, it is now adamant in its rejection to the PKS-Democrat proposal, with its House faction chairman Cucun Ahmad Syamsurijal saying: "There has indeed been a criminal offense, but returning customers’ money is our top priority.”

United Development Party (PPP) secretary-general Arsul Sani said he feared that having a Pansus working on the case would potentially shift the focus of the case to political matters instead of returning the money to the customers.

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