50 bills on this year's priority list
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The House of Representatives and the government have agreed to put 50 bills in their priority program for this year, with many of the bills being from previous sessions.
The agreement was reached after a series of closed-door meetings over the past three days, legislator Bomer Pasaribu, a member of the House's Legislation Body (Baleg), said on Thursday.
Separately, fellow legislator Mutammimul Ula said that the number of prioritized bills could still change, depending on the complexity of the bill and the availability of funds for the deliberation process.
"Theoretically, we could make 50 bills as priorities, but I don't think we would be able to finish them. The law-making process very much depends on available budget," he told The Jakarta Post after the meeting on Thursday.
Among the 50 are bills on the cabinet ministry, the presidential advisory board, the development planning system, and witness protection. The complete list of bills would be announced to the public after a House plenary meeting scheduled for Feb. 1.
Deliberating 50 bills in one year will be a hard task for the legislators. It will mean that legislators would have to discuss nearly 12 bills in four sitting sessions, with each session lasting two months, plus a one-month recess.
The 1999-2004 legislature became a target of public criticism for failing to meet their deliberation targets. On average, legislators could only finish five or six bills every sitting session.
In addition to the agreement on the number of prioritized bills, legislators and the government also agreed to adopt a one- stop-shop mechanism to accelerate the law-making process.
Under the new mechanism, the government will channel bills through the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, while the Baleg will handle bills proposed by the House.
Bomer of the Golkar Party faction said that he hoped the new mechanism would produce better quality law and improve consistency between legislation in the future.
In addition, the new mechanism would also strengthen checks and balances on the House's commissions and the Baleg, thus reducing the possibility bribery during the law-making process.
Under the existing procedure, the Cabinet ministries are allowed to draft their own bills and submit them to the House for deliberation.
House commissions are also allowed to draft bills and to invite relevant ministries to discuss the bills.
This procedure has been prone to abuse, with bribery often occurring to ensure that bills are passed. The ministry proposing the bill often had to bribe legislators to get them to discuss and agree to the bill.
Meanwhile, Mutammimul of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said he hoped the government would provide additional funds to help finance the law-making process.