Bill on direct gubernatorial elections to be prioritized
Bill on direct gubernatorial elections to be prioritized
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The people will soon elect their governors, regents and mayors
directly, due to the planned revision of law No. 22/1999.
Legislators in the House of Representatives (DPR) said on
Monday that the revision of the Regional Administration law would
be put on top of the priority list as the House of
Representatives (DPR) begins its current session.
The revision, they said, would focus on providing regions with
the needed legal basis to hold direct elections of governors,
mayors and regents.
Currently, governors, mayors and regents are elected by the
local legislative council (DPRD) members.
Members of the House's special committee (Pansus) in charge of
bill deliberation unanimously appointed Teras Narang of the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) on Monday to
chair the deliberation process.
"Pak Teras has been appointed committee chairman and we will
discuss the agenda of deliberation on Thursday," said Samuel Koto
of the Reform faction.
Agun Gunandjar Sudarsa of Golkar and Ma'ruf Amien of the
National Awakening Party (PKB) will be deputy chairmen of the
committee.
The special committee will not revise all articles of the
regional administration law, but will simply focus on the direct
elections for regional leaders.
The direct elections are mandated by article 18 (4) of the
newly amended constitution.
Separately, House Speaker Akbar Tandjung emphasized on Monday
that the House would prioritize the deliberation of some bills to
support the amended Constitution.
"As an example, we will put the presidency bill as our
priority because it is mandated by the Constitution," he said
after presiding over a meeting between leaders of House
commissions and leaders of 14 special committees for various
issues.
The crucial meeting for all House leaders, however, apparently
was not interesting enough for deputy House speakers Soetardjo
Soerjogoeritno of PDI Perjuangan, Muhaimin Iskandar of PKB and
A.M. Fatwa of the National Mandate Party (PAN) as the three left
the meeting before it ended.
Akbar explained that House members only had 123 working days
to deliberate on and endorse 56 bills before they concluded their
five-year terms in October.
He called on fellow lawmakers to reduce meetings with
ministers or constituents so they could concentrate on the
deliberation of the bills.
"We want fellow lawmakers to focus on finishing the bills and
scheduling less meetings outside the House," he said.
House leaders will discuss the issues with President Megawati
Soekarnoputri during a consultative meeting next week, Akbar
added.
Bills on priority
No. Bills Status
1. Revisions of Law No. 22/1999 on Regional Administration Starting to deliberate
2. Establishment of Judicial Commission At State Secretariat
3. Presidency At State Secretariat
4. Revisions of the State Audit Agency (BPK) In preparation at House
5. Protection of Migrant Workers At State Secretariat
6. Procedure of Legislation In process of deliberation
7. Revisions of Law No. 7/1992 on Banking Not yet discussed
8. State Finance Audit Not yet discussed
9. The 2005 State Budget At State Secretariat
Source: House's Legislation Body (Baleg)