House to adopt new Code of Conduct<\/p>\n
Tony Hotland
\nThe Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
The House of Representatives' new Code of Conduct fails to
\naccommodate various suggestions for improving the performance of
\nlawmakers as it merely focuses on new power sharing mechanisms on
\nHouse commissions and auxiliary bodies, say observers.<\/p>\n
The new rules, to be lauched next Tuesday during a plenary
\nsession, are the result of months of deliberation by the House
\nlegislation committee, which deleted hundreds of clauses from the
\nprevious Code of Conduct, which were considered detrimental to
\nthe work of the House.<\/p>\n
However, the new rules do not envisage allowing public access
\nto House deliberations or information on crucial issues, such as
\nthe budget, which has become a key focus following the recent
\ndisclosures of alleged malfeasance of budget funds by some
\nlawmakers.<\/p>\n
\"This issue was the last thing on our mind as the revision
\nprocess started months ago (while the corruption issue only
\nemerged recently). Those legislators who were in favor of opening
\npublic access to budget deliberations only came in at the last
\nminute -- only a few days before we approved the new Code of
\nConduct (on Monday),\" legislation committee member from the
\nNational Awakening Party (PKB), Saifullah Ma'shum, said on
\nWednesday.<\/p>\n
Saifullah admitted that the new rules would not completely
\nrule out the sort of conduct that damaged the House's image.<\/p>\n
The new code also failed to ensure that House members would be
\nphysically present throughout hearings. Lawmakers have been
\ncriticized for being frequently absent during House sessions and
\nhearings.<\/p>\n
In most cases, a House member is listed to sit on up to four
\ncommittees or commissions meaning that they cannot be present
\nsimultaneously at all the meetings being held by their
\ncommissions. Thus, they only sign the attendance lists for the
\nmeetings, which entitles them to receive an allowance.<\/p>\n
\"But there's hope that all of the factions will now assign
\ntheir members evenly to all of the House commissions and
\ncommittees so that no one registered for three or four bodies,
\nwhile others are only registered for one,\" said Saifullah.<\/p>\n
House members are regularly rotated between commissions.<\/p>\n
But the new code does allow for changes in the distribution of
\nchairmanships of House committees\/commissions to facilitate
\ndemands from parties that they be given a share of the
\nchairmanships that is proportional to the number of seats they
\nhold.<\/p>\n
At present, most commission leaders are legislators from the
\ncoalition of three major parties that were all initially opposed
\nto the current administration of President Susilo Bambang
\nYudhoyono.<\/p>\n
They are from Golkar, the Indonesian Democratic Party of
\nStruggle (PDI-P) and the PKB -- a compromise arrived at after
\nweeks of political struggle that caused a delay in the work of
\nthe House early this year.<\/p>\n
After Golkar switched sides, the self-proclaimed opposition
\nparties sought the reselection of commission chairmen.<\/p>\n
Each House commission or committee will now have a fourth
\ndeputy chairperson, changing the leadership composition to one
\nchairperson and four deputy chairs.<\/p>\n
The new code, which will take effect in November, also obliges
\nHouse members to visit their constituents in the regions for at
\nleast five days every two months. Such visits may be made during
\nHouse sessions or during recess.<\/p>\n
This, however, raises speculation that the new requirements
\nwill be used to justify an earlier request by the House to jack
\nup lawmakers' allowances to finance constituency visits.<\/p>",
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