Pressure grows on Indonesia house speaker to resign

By Ainur Rohmah

JAKARTA

The fate of the speaker of Indonesia's House of Representative remains on a knife-edge with the ethics council deadlocked Monday on whether to allow a trial of Setya Novanto for ethical misconduct.

An online petition calling for the resignation of Novato -- a senior official in the opposition Golkar party -- has so far gathered around 50,000 signatures and some members of parliament have already asked for him to step down.

"The decision cannot be decided today. We will continue tomorrow afternoon," Kompas.com quoted Council Chief Surahman Hidayat as saying following a closed plenary session in the parliamentary complex.

Novanto is suspected of using the names of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla to demand a stake in Freeport's Indonesia unit if it grants the mining giant permission to extend its Indonesian contract.

Transcripts and recordings of conversations -- supplied by Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said -- between Novanto, Freeport Indonesia president director Maroef Sjamsoeddin and businessman Riza Chalid are said to show violations of his position.

Said reported Setya to the council last week for allegedly claiming to have won the approval of Widodo and Kalla to secure shares and projects from Freeport in exchange for helping the company extend its contract and continue operating one of the world’s largest goldmines in Papua province.

Novanto's legal team, meanwhile, has said it will report Said for alleged illegal wiretapping.

The House is set to determine if the case can be brought to trial and whether it will be open to the public.