Cotton buds, piggy banks and cheeks for legislators

Cotton buds, piggy banks and cheeks for legislators

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Apart from tense debate inside the People's Consultative
Assembly's commodious convention hall over burning state issues,
it was a bundle of laughs outside.

The main unofficial event was a "ceremony" where NGO activists
presented easygoing legislators with a box of cotton buds, a mock
check and a piggy bank.

The gifts were intended to mock politicians, who the activists
said "do not listen to what the common people say, accept bribes
and waste the taxpayers' money".

The "check" carried the instruction: "a legal bribe instrument
at the legislature".

Just a day earlier, two activists were briefly detained at
city police headquarters on charges of "disturbing" legislators
by handing them cotton buds to clean their ears before attending
sessions.

Fikri Thalib from the Interest Group was the first legislator
to receive a package from Vincent, an activist from the
coalition, on Friday.

"This is proof that people care about the Assembly," said
Lukman Hakim from the United Development Party (PPP) after
receiving his Assembly survival kit.

Two other legislators to accept the gifts were Baharuddin
Aritonang from the Golkar Party and Dwi Ria Latifa from the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

Nia Sjarifudin of the Women's Solidarity group, coordinator of
the ceremony, said the cotton buds were "strong enough to clean
the ears of lawmakers".

She added that the items were distributed because the
activists were disappointed with the legislators' reluctance to
listen to what the public wanted.

The coalition of NGOs said that the deliberation process in
the Assembly did not reflect the interests of the people, but was
instead leading to political conspiracy.

No police officers intervened in the event, which attracted a
large crowd.