DPR should be dissolved

DPR should be dissolved

The House of Representatives (DPR) is no longer faithful to
the spirit of reform. It has failed to implement the true reform
agenda drawn up by the students when they brought former
president Soeharto down.

The fact that the House has only established a special
committee to probe the Buloggate and Bruneigate scandals, but not
the manipulations by Soeharto and his cronies, the Bank Indonesia
Liquidity Support Loan scandal and the General Election
Commission (KPU), all worth trillions of rupiah, is evidence of
the House's loss of the reform spirit.

It is feared that the legitimacy of the House will be abused
by its members, most of whom are indeed overt and covert agents
of the New Order, to bring back the New Order regime under a new
guise. All of society must therefore maintain vigilance over the
latent power of the New Order, hiding behind the formal
legitimacy of the House.

The DPR is worth dissolving now because of the following
reasons:

(1) The House is now too legislative-heavy and greedy for
functions. They have grabbed the executive and judicial powers,
giving rise, therefore, to the phenomenon known as the
dictatorship of the parliament.

(2) The House is excessively control-oriented at the expense of
its budgetary and legislative functions. There is not a single
law that they have drafted themselves. All that they have done is
proceed with, revise or amend existing laws.

(3) The House is a quasi-parliament claiming to represent the
people. Which people, one may rightfully inquire. In general the
people are not acquainted with the House members and these
legislators generally do not have a comprehensive knowledge about
the area they represent. They are just pawns of the political
parties and they are not pure guardians of popular aspirations.

(4) House members have below average qualifications. This is
demonstrated by their inability to express ideas, as well as
analyze and conduct debate on the issues related to their
assignments. It is also demonstrated by their physical appearance
and mental aptitude in mass media interviews. The previous House
had quite a few qualified bureaucrats as its members. The party
cadres sitting in the present House are just like kindergarten
children in terms of their appearance and behavior.
Unfortunately, the previous House simply agreed to be made the
ruler's rubber stamp.

(5) Legislators have never undergone a fit and proper test. It
is ridiculous for the House to subject the candidates for chief
of National Police, chairman of the State Supreme Audit Agency,
chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council and Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court when the legislators are not only less experienced
and have lower education than the above candidates, but more
importantly, and ironically, have never taken this fit and proper
test themselves. Just remember the story of rats giving a test to
cats to decide which of them would be entitled to have a bell
placed round its neck.

(6) Many House members have the mentality of grabbing as much as
they can while the opportunity exists. Salaries of the House
members have been raised several times. They also have made use
of the facilities offered to them such as a house, automobile and
overseas trips, which are apparently a waste of money totaling
billions of rupiah, especially considering the unfavorable
conditions the country is currently experiencing.

(7) Then there are also practices of money politics, interparty
vote trading, extortion and some other overt and covert shameful
acts.

Therefore, by virtue of a presidential decree, and in view of
the above seven points, all functions of the DPR must be
liquidated and replaced by new ones determined by a direct
popular vote in a general election to be held within six months.

WIMANJAYA K. LIOTOHE

Jakarta