DPR needs to shed its poor image: PPP
JAKARTA (JP): The United Development Party (PPP) said yesterday that the House of Representatives (DPR) should shed its image as a rubber stamp institution.
PPP legislators said the House should amend its notoriously complicated internal laws to allow it greater independence to perform its job as the people's representative body rather than just legalize the government's wishes.
"Now that the government tolerates greater political openness, DPR should be given more teeth," said Hamzah Haz, chief of the PPP faction in the legislative body.
The demand to reform the House was the latest maneuver by the Moslem-oriented party to campaign its programs to win sympathy from potential voters in the 1997 general election.
Along with the minority Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), it pushed for the same proposal last year when the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) gathered for its five-yearly sessions to review political laws.
But it was predictably shot down by the dominant government- backed Golkar political grouping and the powerful Armed Forces (ABRI), which reserves 100 seats in the House.
Hamzah said the House's internal law is no longer suitable because it was made at a time when the national stability was Indonesia's top priority.
"Now that Indonesia is vigorously pursuing democracy, the House laws should be amended to allow the House to function as the people expect," he said.
The party rejects that the House's present internal rules must be accepted so as not to undermine national stability.
One of the most well-known complexities in the law is the requirement for a faction to have the support from the other factions if it wants to pass or amend a bill.
Scare tactics
The House leadership's power to dismiss a legislator is also widely seen as scare tactics to stop House members criticizing the bureaucracy and defending the oppressed.
Hamzah said that the DPR law made political factions in the legislative body face the fast changing times with a conservative attitude.
Efforts to reform the rules, he said, bites the dust because each of the four factions in the House have a different interpretation of what the government's greater tolerance of political openness would mean to the legislative body.
PPP also vowed to strengthen the House's role in the finalization of the annual state budget.
Hamzah said that in the future, deliberation on the budget must include details of government projects and programs to facilitate DPR's supervision of the state funds.
"The House has the right to know every single cent the government spends," said the legislator well-known for his shrewd analysis on state budget. (pan)