DPR failure in legislation 'should draw penalty'
DPR failure in legislation 'should draw penalty'
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The failure of the House of Representatives (DPR) to pass 24
bills into law during the current session deprives the public of
legislation badly needed to overhaul the country's economic and
political scenes.
It will also further delay deliberations on other bills
scheduled for the next session as the House has embarked on an
ambitious campaign to enact 80 bills this year.
Of the 24 bills slated to be endorsed by the end of the
current session on March 28, those on money laundering and
establishing a commission for the eradication of corruption are
the most crucial as foreign donors have tied much-needed
financial assistance to their enactment.
Failure to do so, considered likely, may prompt the
Consultative Group on Indonesia and the Asian Development Bank to
delay the disbursement of financial assistance totaling US$3.74
billion.
The move would severely affect the country's budget deficit
which is estimated to reach 2.5 percent of Indonesia's gross
domestic product in the 2002 budget.
Donor countries grouped in the Paris Club have also put the
enactment of the money laundering bill as a prerequisite for
rescheduling Indonesia's sovereign debts, The $5 billion debt,
both sovereign and interest, is due in 2002 and 2003.
The parties are scheduled to meet in Paris in April to decide
whether or not they would reschedule the debts. A failure to
secure a deal may force Indonesia to spend much of its budget on
servicing sovereign debts which now stand at $138 billion, half
of which belongs to the government.
Other bills urgently needed included reforms on political
parties, the election system and the composition of the House and
the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR). A delay in the
deliberation of those laws will affect the preparations for the
2004 general elections.
In comparison, some 67 bills were passed during former
president B.J. Habibie's 16-month rule ending Sept. 1999. Many
laws were later revised because of poor deliberation.
The legislators' inferior performance, which is caused mainly
by a severe lack of discipline and political rivalry, has sparked
calls for non-performing lawmakers to be fired.
Political analyst Arbi Sanit and coordinator of Parliament
Watch Denny J.A. recommended that the legislative body should
apply the stick-and-carrot approach.
"There must be a penalty for lazy legislators that stall
legislation activities," Denny told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Arbi of the University of Indonesia concurred, saying that
there must be an internal mechanism in the House to sack lazy
legislators that slow legislative activities.
Arbi and Denny said there was no authoritative regulation that
enabled either the House or the political party to dismiss
legislators -- no matter how lazy they were.
An internal regulation of the House only stipulates that the
House may establish an ad hoc honorary council to review any
legislators that commit violations of the Code of Ethics.
Meanwhile, Golkar legislator Agun Gunandjar Sudarsa of House
Commission II for law and domestic affairs admitted on Thursday
that the House's poor performance in the legislation was
particularly caused by its internal regulations.
"How can we reach a quorum if some factions have less than 15
members?" Agun asked, alluding to a ruling allowing 10
legislators to set up a faction.
He said that a faction in the House should have at least 30
members to deal with daily jobs in nine commissions and four
legislative bodies effectively.