Major political parties are intensifying closed-door lobbying among themselves and with high-ranking officials in the leadup to the Bank Century inquiry committee during the House of Representatives' recess period. 
The committee, chaired by Golkar secretary-general Idrus Marham, will go on a week-long break, and will be back to work on Dec. 14.
Legislators have said that those lobbying, which include the government's coalition bloc and mem-bers of opposition groups, are concerned with the inquiry's exit strategy, including who should be saved and victimized, as well as what the politicians could gain from the government if they followed the design.
A committee member claimed that the parties involved in the lobbying are aiming to predetermine the results of the inquiry so that by the time it begins its first meeting everything would have been settled.
Ahmad Muzani from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) said that as the major parties had pre-decided the committee chairman even before the formal election was conducted demonstrated backroom deals would determine the results of the inquiry rather than the official meeting.
"If we reflect on the chairman selection process, it is clear that we cannot do anything to go against the government and its large coalition bloc. From the beginning, it's a political compromise, and it will last until the end."
The Democratic Party has expressed its minimum target of getting the President and Vice President Boediono off the hook, with no comment on Finance Minister Sri Mulyani's culpability or lack thereof.
Rescue missions to save Mulyani are reportedly underway, with a group of businesspeople, a political party and supporters on Facebook intensifying efforts to defend the reform-minded minister.
Sources have said that a tycoon was approaching the House's major factions to save Mulyani while in the online world, the rescue mission began with the establishment of a Facebook group named "We Believe in the Integrity of Sri Mulyani".
As of the time of writing, the group had gathered 10,060 members.
On Saturday, the United Development Party (PPP) invited Mulyani to explain the bailout, with the party chairman and Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali stating his party needed more firsthand information about the case.
The Golkar Party aimed at more seats for either the Cabinet or state enterprises, party officials have said.
Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, who reportedly plans to run for president in 2014, said he would not seek to impeach Yudhoyono and Boediono.
Yudhoyono's other coalition members, which include the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the National Awakening Party (PKB), also looked to strengthen their position against the government through the inquiry move, observers have said.
Burhanuddin Muhtadi from the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) said that all political parties, pro-government or opposition, knew about each other's dirty laundry.
As a number of high-ranking PDI-P figures are tangled in graft cases. Burhanuddin said such a condition would eventually cause PDI-P legislators at the committee to succumb to their party's political bargaining interests.
The PDI-P's Gayus Lumbuun, however, said that his party would work seriously, even if it were waylaid by its members' legal problems.
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