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Jakarta. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono scored a rare political victory of late when his speech on the latest spat between Indonesia and Malaysia led to the Golkar Party deciding to drop its plan to question the government over its handling of the maritime border dispute.

Priyo Budi Santoso, the House deputy speaker and Golkar member, said on Wednesday that Yudhoyono’s speech did enough to ease Golkar’s concerns over wether the administration had adopted “weak” political posturing toward its richer neighbor.

“We are planning on dropping the idea to invoke the House’s interpellation (questioning) rights over the weakness of Indonesian diplomacy with Malaysia,” Priyo said.

He added that the president’s body language and tone while delivering the speech conveyed an air of seriousness that assured the party that Yudhoyono would not bend on national interest and sovereignty matters.

The deputy speaker at the House said that rather than request an interpellation, Golkar would now instead wait for the response of government officials in following up the president’s speech.

Similar statements were also aired by the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the United Development Party (PPP), which are also ruling key coalition partners.

Mahfudz Siddiq, who chairs the House’s Commission I on defense and foreign affairs and is a PKS lawmaker, said his party did not want to call the government into question, and preferred to push Jakarta to secure a maritime border pact with Malaysia.

“We should focus on controlling weak diplomacy rather than just talking about diplomacy,” he said.

Secretary of the PPP’s House faction, Romy Romahurmuzy, said the president’s speech had clearly shown that the government recognizes the need to create a calm climate when it deals with its neighbor.

“This option is better. We should also view the (speech) as evidence that the interpellation right is not needed,” Romahurmuzy said.

Despite criticizing the president’s speech as falling short of the tougher stance expected by most Indonesians, the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, said that it would not automatically support a push to question the government.

Tjahjo Kumolo, secretary general and House Faction leader of the PDI-P, said his party is keen to bring the often bickering factions together to support the government in taking a stronger stance when dealing with disputes with Malaysia.

“It’s better for the House to formulate statements to push the government to immediately take new measures in fairly settling the disputes,” he said.

An interpellation right, Tjahjo said, is also prone to political manipulation.

He cited the examples of the House’s probe into the Bank Century bailout, and the recent appointment of Darmin Nasution as the new central bank governor.

During those two occasions, some parties switched allegiances to when it suited their political interests, he said.

“PDI-P will not be trapped in political plays like this anymore, including the interpellation right. We do not want to be in something which ends with political bargaining,” Tjahjo said.