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