"Political changes can happen in our parliament every minute. Therefore, I do not feel surprised," he told journalists in response to the appointment of Setya Novanto, the Golkar politician, as the Houses speaker here on Thursday.
Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, remarked that his government would still be able to function smoothly even though the speaker of the house was not from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP)-backed coalition of parties.
Setya Novanto, the current treasurer of the Golkar Partys central executive board, was appointed as the house speaker during a plenary session held from Wednesday evening until early Thursday.
During the plenary session, fierce debates broke out among the politicians representing the Red-and-White Coalition of political parties and their rivals from the PDIP-backed coalition.
Four deputy chairmanship posts were also filled in by the politicians representing the Red-and-White Coalition camp: Fadli Zon of Gerindra, Agus Hermanto from the Democratic Party, Taufik Kurniawan from the National Mandate Party, and Fahri Hamzah from the Prosperous Justice Party.
While the discussions related to the leadership post were going on during the plenary session, the members of parliament representing PDIP, Nasdem, National Awakening Party, and Peoples Conscience Party staged a walkout.
Reported by Agita Tarigan
(T.R013/INE)
EDITED BY INE
(R013/KR-BSR/H-YH)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
