News Focus: HOUSE LIKELY TO DECIDE CENTURY CASE THROUGH VOTES By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Feb 27 (ANTARA) - The House of Representatives (DPR) is expected to have to do some tough deliberations when it holds a plenary session on Tuesday and Wednesday on the conclusions of the House Inquiry Committee which has investigated the Bank Century bailout case.

Observers say that deliberations in the plenary will unlikely reach a consensus, forcing the House to decide it through a vote. Therefore, political observer Muhammad Qodari of "Indo Barometer" believed the House would decide it through the voting option.

"Having observed the substance of the final views of factions in the inquiry committee during its plenary a couple of days ago, I believe that the House will not be able to take a decision based on the consensus mechanism," Muhammad Qodari said on Saturday.

Associate chairman of the Golkar Party Priyo Budi Santoso also predicted that the House deliberations over the final views of the factions would be tough and it would face difficulties to take a decision so that the decision to be made would be taken through a vote.

"I think the plenary that will discuss the final views of the factions will see a lot of hard debate because each faction will try to defend its position ," Priyo Budi Santoso said.

Factions which have delivered their final views on the Bank Century bailout amounting to Rp6.7 trillion will be consistent with their stance so that the voting mechanism option would be unavoidable for the House to take a decision.

After all factions delivered their final views on the Bank Century bailout scandal on Tuesday night, the House will next Tuesday and Wednesday in plenary discuss it. Many factions have different views so that it is predicted that during the plenary faction members would also intensely lobby each other. The legislators might even have to resort to a vote several times.

The most interesting voting is likely on factions' views which mentioned names of persons or state officials who are thought to be responsible for the scandal.

"The voting will be on whether to mention only the names of the chairperson of the Financial System Stability Committee (KSSK) and the Bank Indonesia governor, or also the name of other state officials," Qodari said.

Other interesting issue that might be decided through a vote is the status of the Short-Term Funding Facility (FPJP) and Temporary Capital Participation (PMS) about which factions have differences of views.

During the House Inquiry Committee's plenary on Tuesday night which lasted until the wee hours on Wednesday, seven factions mentioned that violations had been committed with regard to the issuance of the FPJP and PMS amounting to Rp6.7 trillion for Bank Century.

Only two factions have the opinion that the extension of the FPJP and PMS did not violate any regulation because it had been done in accordance with the procedures. The two factions are the factions of the ruling Democratic Party (PD) and the Nation's Awaking Party (PKB). PKB is one of the parties in PD's ruling coalition partners.

On the flow of funds from Bank Century, all factions mentioned that violations had been committed, but they differed on who committed the violations.

Four factions mentioned the names of persons or state officials who were responsible for the violations that had been committed in the Bank Century case, these factions were of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the Golkar Party and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura). PKS and Golkar are partners in the ruling coalition.

With these different views, a number of legislators predicted that the House in its plenary next Tuesday and Wednesday would decide the different views through voting.

Prio Budi Santoso said that if the House came up with the voting option, it had to be carried out openly. The reason is that a decision is to be taken with regard to a policy not a person. So, it is just proper for the public to know it.

"With an open voting, the people could see which of their representatives are channeling their aspirations and who are not," Prio Budi Santoso who is also a deputy House Speaker said.

The same voice was also raised by Bambang Soesatyo of the Golkar Party who urged that a voting should be held openly. If it is held in a closed place, there could be many legislators who would change their stance because of transactional practical politics. It is difficult to know who change their voices and who consistently maintain their stance.

Hendrawan Supratikno of the PDIP also predicted that it would proceed toughly as factions' views were already known to the public so that it would be difficult for factions to change their stance.

PDIP chief Megawati Soekarnoputri said there would be no change in the party's stance on the Bank Century bailout scandal as expressed by its faction in the House of Representatives.

"I will not talk a lot about the Bank Century case, PDIP's stance is already clear," she said when opening the party's Lampung provincial third regional conference here on Saturday.

The PDIP faction in the House of Representatives Inquiry Committee had concluded that its field findings constituted strong clues of banking law violations, money laundering, and corruption.

Therefore, the public is giving the greatest attention to the settlement of the Bank Century case. Factions who change stance would be under the spotlight of the people.

"The people will criticize if there are factions who change stance," Hendrawan Supratikno, who is also a member of the House Century inquiry committee, said.