Child protection bill passed amid poor attendance
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
For the third time in one year, the House of Representatives (DPR) on Monday passed a bill into law despite an abysmally poor attendance by legislators, revealing once again the poor performance of legislators in carrying out their legislative duties.
Although only about 112 legislators were seen in the plenary hall -- far below the required number of more than half of the House's 500 members, the House nevertheless decided to endorse the long-awaited child protection bill.
In her speech to the House, State Minister for Women's Empowerment Sri Redjeki Soemaryoto thanked legislators for passing the bill, which dealt with some "sensitive issues."
The bill covers, among other things, adoption, guardianship, and custody, which caused so much debate that the House to decided to delay the passage of the bill during the previous sitting.
After some revisions, the latest version of the bill provides that in the case of adoption, custody and fostering, the parents must be of the same religion as the child.
"The most important thing is that we have a legal basis for protecting children having regard to the UN Convention on Children's Rights," the minister said.
Indonesia ratified the UN Convention on Child Protection in 1990. But it was only in 2001 that legislators began deliberating the Child Protection bill.
The passing of the bill, however, was not without protest.
Legislator Darul Siska of the Golkar Party urged House deputy speaker Muhaimin Iskandar, who presided over the session, to ensure that enough legislators were present before passing the bill.
Muhaimin, however, turned a deaf ear and banged his gavel, thus endorsing the bill.
The attendance sheet listed 319 signatures, but only 112 legislators were seen in the hall when Muhaimin struck his gavel.
Legislators often cite the figure shown in the attendance list without having regard to the real number of legislators present in the plenary hall when a bill is approved.
Monday's turnaround is, of course, not the first time such a thing has happened in the House.
Similar scenes took place on March 25 and Sept. 4 when the House respectively passed the bills on money laundering and electricity despite poor attendances. Only 49 legislators were present when the House approved the bill on money laundering and 102 legislators were present for the passage of the electricity bill.
A number of legal and political analysts questioned the passage of these bills, given that there was such a poor attendance of legislators.
They said that such plenary meetings should be postponed until a quorum was reached.
This way, legislators would be forced to physically attend every plenary session intended to pass bills.
The poor attendance of legislators has been a matter of public concern for some time. Legislators have mainly been busy with their political agendas, but less concerned with their legislative duties.
This has been the main cause of the House's failure to meet legislative targets in every recent session.
When marking the opening of the House term last January, Speaker Akbar Tandjung promised to finish the deliberation of 24 bills. But, by the end of that session in March, only three bills had been passed.
Even worse, the House passed only two bills in the following session from May 13 through July 19.
At a consultative meeting with President Megawati Soekarnoputri on July 16, House leaders came up with a surprise excuse, saying that the poor performance of the legislators regarding their legislative duties was not due to a lack of discipline but rather a lack of funds.