The House of Representatives was split on the decision to continue deliberating the bill, but concerns about intrusion into people's private matters were enough to drive the agenda into the ground – for now.
he House of Representatives decided to halt all deliberation of the controversial family resilience bill this week, after concerns among several party factions about legislative overreach into people’s private lives led to an end to the process.
The House Legislative Body (Baleg) announced the decision during a hearing session on Tuesday, in which five out of the nine factions at the House voted against continuing the deliberation.
The scales tipped slightly in favor of secular-nationalist parties such as the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Golkar, the Democratic Party and the Nasdem Party.
The National Awakening Party (PKB), which is part of the government’s big-tent coalition and whose membership overlaps with that of the nation’s largest grassroots Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, also voted against continuing the bill’s deliberation process.
Read also: Lawmakers at loggerheads over family resilience bill
The other four factions of the House, comprising the Gerindra Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the United Development Party (PPP), voted to continue the discussions.
The division at the House led Supratman Andi Atgas, the head of Baleg, to say lawmakers had failed to reach a unanimous understanding on the basic concept of the bill.
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