House cancels meeting with SBY over fuel price increase

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 05/22/2008 11:01 AM  |  Headlines

In an about-face, the House of Representatives canceled Wednesday a plan to invite President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for a consultation meeting on fuel price increases.

The decision came after a meeting of House leaders presided over by Speaker Agung Laksono. Present at the internal meeting were all faction heads, the budget committee, the head of Commission VII overseeing energy, minerals and the environment, and the head of Commission XI on financial affairs.

"We put off the consultation meeting. Factions see no need for the House to hold such a meeting," said Agung.

Last week, Agung disclosed a plan to ask the President to explain the unpopular fuel policy to House leaders, after a number of factions expressed their opposition to the plan.

The government had expressed its readiness to accept the invitation.

The House as an institution would not officially respond to the fuel policy, Agung said.

"The House will not reject or accept this policy. It's up to each faction to respond," he said.

Deputy House Speaker Muhaimin Iskandar said the factions had expected to hear details from the President on the planned fuel price increase.

"Through consultation with the government, we wanted to understand precisely the target and design of the price increase so we would know how to respond toMuhaimin said.

The decision to drop the presidential consultation was final as it was made in a higher forum than the interfaction meeting which had first proposed the consultation, Agung said.

He declined to go into details of reasons behind the decision. "All factions agreed to cancel the meeting. Please ask each faction about the reasons," he said.

Tjahjo Kumolo, who chairs the opposition bloc Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction, said he accepted the cancellation for technical reasons.

"The House's standing order does not provide any mechanism for such a consultative meeting. We proposed inviting the President to explain his policy in a House plenary session, but this mechanism is not found either," Tjahjo said.

The PDI-P is among the House factions rejecting the planned price increases.

Tjahjo said a consultation meeting would cause public misunderstanding about the PDI-P's position.

"Normally, a consultation meeting does not reach any conclusion except for House leaders to say they can understand the government's policy. This would be dangerous for us because the public could perceive that we support the government's plan," he said.

Tjahjo said the PDI-P would continue to oppose the price increases through available mechanisms.

"If the government finally raises fuel prices, we will petition an interpellation motion," Tjahjo said. (alf)

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