Jakarta: Squabbles Erupt Over Leadership Ahead of DPD Plenary Meeting
Disruptions broke out ahead of a plenary meeting of regional councilors in Jakarta on Monday (03/04) over the legitimacy of the council’s leadership following a recent court ruling.
Last week, the Supreme Court revoked a Regional Representatives Council (DPD) regulation from January that tried to cut leadership terms to two and a half years. The Supreme Court ruling reinstated five-year terms for council heads.
Monday’s meeting was set to discuss that ruling, which has divided regional councilors, and altercations subsequently erupted ahead of the meeting over who should lead.
Proponents of the court ruling raised objections as council leaders GKR Hemas and Farouk Muhammad — whose terms should have ended on Saturday according to January’s ruling — were about to take the podium.
East Java councilor Marwardi came to the podium and read out the January regulation, which was signed by Hemas and Farouk. This eventually led other councilors to jostle with each other to occupy the podium.
On March 30, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of ten councilors who said they had suffered from the new regulation passed by the DPD in January. In its ruling, the Supreme Court said the DPD regulation ran contrary to the 2014 law on legislative institutions.
