DPR and professionalism

DPR and professionalism

From Merdeka

Members of society have expressed in this newspaper their
various expectations of House of Representatives members (DPR).
Some honestly expect House members will perform well, others are
pessimistic about this, and still others express skepticism about
legislators. The following is not my expectations of the new
House members.

What I wish to express here is what factors have made our
legislators active or inactive, daring or otherwise and
professional or unprofessional. In my opinion, which is based on
experience, we cannot pin too much hope on legislators as the
People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) is only in session once
every five years to discuss the accountability report of the
mandate holder, and also because members of the House are also
members of the MPR.

If governance is to run well, the government/president and the
House must be professional. They should not prioritize the idea
of whether or not they will be reelected. What should be foremost
in their minds is that in the five years of their tenure they
must do their best and give the best results. In lawmaking, for
example, the government should not just tell the House to draw up
a law on this or that. As is the practice now, the government
prepares the laws, implements them and exercises supervision over
their implementation.

Each party must have a common working platform, a common
target and a common working report. In this way the House could
easily supervise how each ministry implements State Policy
Guidelines in its respective area of duty. The same holds true in
respect to the budget of each ministry.

To be a legislator, one does not have to be a former active
member of a political organization. One may come from a non-
governmental organization and be recruited by a contestant in the
general election. The main requirement is professionalism. It
means that one must devote oneself to one's own area of duty and
must be able to satisfy oneself that one's work will win the
recognition of others.

This professionalism is not only a prerequisite to being a
legislator, but also, particularly, to being a president. A
president must be professional in his skills, knowledge,
attitude, behavior and leadership. In the absence of
professionalism, never hope that the Indonesian people will
really take pride in being Indonesian.

DJODJOK RAHARDJO

Jakarta