Muninggar Sri Saraswati

House Fails to Debate Proposed Boediono, Sri Mulyani Suspension

The House of Representatives on Monday failed to debate a proposal to suspend Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati during its investigation into the PT Bank Century bailout.

House Speaker Marzuki Alie, from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, said he had decided to cancel the House leadership meeting because only himself and House Deputy Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso from the Golkar Party were present.

“According to House internal regulations, an internal meeting must be attended by three chairpersons,” he said.

House deputy speakers Pramono Anung Wibowo from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Anis Matta from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) are on leave, while Marwoto Mitrohardjono from the National Mandate Party (PAN) is ill. PKS and PAN are members of the ruling Democratic Party coalition.

Marzuki also said he had yet to obtain the official letter from the House special committee investigating the bailout, which included a recommendation to suspend Boediono and Sri Mulyani from their duties while the probe was underway.

The committee said it sent the letter on Dec. 18.

“We will only discuss the matter once the letter arrives,” Marzuki said.

“There will certainly be strong arguments from all factions [in the House],” he said.

Priyo agreed that the Monday meeting had been canceled due to technical reasons.

“All leaders were supposed to come except Pak Pramono, who is abroad,” he said, adding that the committee only had 60 days from when it started working on Dec. 5 to conclude its investigation.

The House is currently in recess and will reconvene on Monday.

Although he has yet to receive the official letter regarding the suspension of his two aides, Yudhoyono has already rejected the idea, saying that such a suspension was not supported by the Constitution.

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