DPR criticized for poor performance on its birthday

DPR criticized for poor performance on its birthday

JAKARTA (JP): In conjunction with the 56th anniversary of the
House of Representatives (DPR), which fell on Wednesday, the
performance of the legislature was criticized by both political
observers and legislators themselves as being poor.

Miriam Budiardjo, a political observer from the University of
Indonesia, said that compared to the House's performance during
the New Order era the present legislature had made some progress,
but it could not perform well because of the existing electoral
system.

"Since the start of the reform era, hundreds of bills have
been ratified (especially during the Habibie era) and the House
has begun using its budgetary and control functions to ensure
checks-and-balances mechanisms with the executive body," he told
The Jakarta Post by telephone here on Wednesday.

Miriam observed that the House had placed emphasis on its
control function, thereby delaying a great number of bills
submitted for deliberation to the House.

Zein Badjeber, chairman of the House legislative committee,
admitted the House has yet to perform optimally in exercising its
legislative function.

"Out of 50 bills submitted to the House for the 1999-2004
period, 30 are still being deliberated and only a handful of them
have been passed into law," he said.

He said the bills being deliberated included draft laws on tax
payments, settlement of labor disputes, police, state defense,
special autonomy for Irian Jaya and intellectual rights.

Teten Masduki, coordinator of Indonesian Corruption Watch
(ICW), attributed the House's poor performance to the electoral
system and the strong role of the political parties.

According to ICW, the House does not represent the people, but
rather the political parties and the Indonesian Military. This
could be seen from the fact that all the legislators had been
appointed by their own parties, while the military still holds
non-elected seats.

"This means that legislators are still abusing the public
trust because they never have to account to their constituents,"
he said.

According to Teten, the House is far removed from the people
it represents because most legislators pay more attention to
their respective parties' political interests than to the
problems the people are facing.

According to information supplied by the House's general
secretariat, a legislator receives Rp 9.25 million (US$1,055) as
his basic monthly salary and enjoys at least 10 different
allowances and perks in respect of housing, transportation,
electricity, washing machines, health cover, car loans and
communications with his constituents.

Aberson Marle Sihaloho, an outspoken legislator from the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan),
concurred, saying the House was unable to do a good job because
the legislators were representing not the people but their own
political parties.

"Those who have the power in the House are the party leaders,
not the people," he said, adding that the current electoral
system should be changed to a district system so as to make the
legislators accountable.

He said the House had yet to use its control and budgetary
functions to improve the government's performance.

"So far, the House has yet to use its budgetary function to
force the executive to allocate special funds to create job
opportunities so as to cope with unemployment, to provide
vocational training to improve workers' skills or to help
vulnerable groups as it is required to do by the Constitution,"
he asserted.

J. Sahetapy, another legislator from the PDI Perjuangan, said
the House's poor performance had a lot to do with the low quality
of human resources found in the House and the absence of tough
measures against legislators who violated the House's code of
ethics.

"Some legislators are facing an ethical and moral crisis amid
the absence of discipline among the majority of legislators," he
said. (rms)