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Analysis: House inquiry may pave way for new round in Jokowi-Megawati fight
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A file photograph shows empty seats at the House of Representatives. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he row between President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Megawati Soekarnoputri, the chair of the Indonesian Democratic Party or Struggle (PDI-P), could move into a new round, this time with much bigger political stakes, if the House of Representatives goes ahead with its plan to launch an inquiry to look into allegations of impropriety in last month’s general elections.
The House is still divided whether or not to use their right of inquiry, and it is now down to Megawati as the chair of the largest party in the House to make that call. The House resumes work on Monday (March 4) after a one-month recess. If the House goes ahead and finds the allegations to be true, it cannot annul the results of the Feb. 14 elections, a decision solely in the hands of the Constitutional Court. But if any crime was found to have been committed by the President, the House could start an impeachment process.
In spite of growing calls for Jokowi’s impeachment, however, Megawati has made it clear that the House inquiry should not lead to destabilizing the government or impeaching the incumbent President.
Megawati, Indonesia’s president in 2001-2004, has yet to give the formal nod to her party to propose using the House’s right of inquiry. She knows a thing or two about impeachments. As vice president in 2001, she was promoted to the nation’s top job by default after the People’s Consultative Assembly removed president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid for financial improprieties.
It does not take that much to propose using the right of inquiry – 25 House members from more than one party – but it needs the support of more than 50 percent of House members in attendance at the plenary for it to go ahead. While getting past the first phase is easy, getting the 50 percent endorsement from the House could be a challenge.
Parties in the House are still realigning themselves following last month’s elections. The PDI-P is still the largest member of Jokowi’s eight party-coalition government, but after the elections, it will likely to start distancing itself from the President. If the House’s inquiry goes ahead, this could jeopardize its position in the coalition government. For now, Megawati has insisted that the PDI-P, which has as many as six ministers in the Jokowi cabinet, will remain in the Jokowi government until its term ends in October.
Preliminary counts of the votes by the General Elections Commission (KPU) show Defense Minister Prabowo having an insurmountable lead with 59 percent of the national votes in the presidential election, well ahead of former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan with 24 percent, and former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo with 17 percent. The KPU has until March 20 to finish the counting and announce the official results.
