Legislators continue their dismal attendance record<\/p>\n
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Despite strong criticism of their performance, members of the
\nHouse of Representatives (DPR) remained stubbornly undisciplined
\non Tuesday, skipping a scheduled plenary meeting for reasons
\nknown only to them.<\/p>\n
Only 122 of the 500 legislators in the DPR were present on
\nTuesday when the House was about to approve the nominations of
\nBunbunan Hutapea and Aslim Tadjuddin as Bank Indonesia deputy
\ngovernors.<\/p>\n
The plenary meeting, chaired by Deputy House Speaker Soetardjo
\nSoerjogoeritno of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
\n(PDI Perjuangan), endorsed their nominations anyway despite the
\napparent poor attendance of DPR members.<\/p>\n
Later, their numbers went down to just 87 when the meeting
\nendorsed a proposal on the establishment of four regencies in
\nNorth Maluku province.<\/p>\n
Staff members of the House Secretariat reported earlier that
\n251 legislators had signed the attendance list, prompting
\nSoetardjo to open the plenary meeting.<\/p>\n
The legislators' poor performance reminded the public of a
\nsimilar scene last March when only 49 legislators were around to
\ngive their final approval to the crucial money laundering bill.<\/p>\n
The low level of discipline of legislators was to blame for
\nthe House's failure to meet its legislation target in the
\nprevious session. Of 24 bills put forward as a priority, the
\nHouse only finished three bills.<\/p>\n
It has become a common habit among legislators to sign the
\nattendance list and leave immediately for their personal
\nbusiness. This habit has worried House leaders who, based on the
\nHouse's internal rules, have no authority to impose penalties.<\/p>\n
Soetardjo acknowledged on Tuesday that House leaders had
\nissued five petitions to party and faction leaders to impose
\npenalties on undisciplined members.<\/p>\n
"We have cautioned the parties and factions five times, but
\nnothing has happened," Soetardjo complained.<\/p>\n
House Speaker Akbar Tandjung, a suspect in a Rp 40 billion
\ngraft scandal, echoed Soetardjo's concerns, but was uncertain
\nabout penalties that could be meted out against undisciplined
\nlegislators.<\/p>\n
A similar concern was voiced by PDI Perjuangan's legislator
\nPanda Nababan, who said that it was hard for each commission or
\nplenary meeting to reach a quorum for a meeting to commence.<\/p>\n
"This is terrible. But I don't know why," Panda said.<\/p>\n
Djoko Susilo from the National Mandate Party (PAN) raised an
\nexcuse, saying that various duties assigned to legislators were
\nto blame for their poor attendance in plenary meetings.<\/p>\n
"It is impossible for legislators to attend all the
\nlegislative meetings," said Djoko, one of the legislators who
\nsigned the attendance sheet but did not join the plenary session.<\/p>\n
He argued that he had to skip the plenary meeting to attend a
\nmeeting of a 12-strong team to verify documents of Presidential
\nAid Funds provided by State Secretary Bambang Kesowo and the
\ndeliberation of the broadcasting bill.<\/p>\n
Soetardjo and Akbar said the situation could possibly force
\nlegislators to revive the "recall" system which was misused
\nduring the New Order regime to remove government critics from the
\nlegislature.<\/p>\n
The recall system, Soetardjo added, would give authority to
\nexecutive boards of each party to dismiss undisciplined
\nlegislators.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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