Game of 'musical chairs' at the legislature
Game of 'musical chairs' at the legislature
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
An increasing number of legislators are playing
a game of "musical chairs" in that while their colleagues are
seriously involved in a plenary meeting or hearing, they feel
themselves at liberty to abandon the hearing or meeting so as to
attend another one.
Money would appear to be the main reason for the new-found
popularity of musical chairs
A legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
(PDI Perjuangan), Suwignyo, for example, left a plenary meeting
on the child protection bill when the deliberations were still
going on. He left the room and walked to another one. "I have to
go to another meeting on the state budget," he said in a whisper.
Suwignyo is not the only aficionado of musical chairs in the
House of Representatives building. Many other legislators do the
same thing. Only a couple of dozen legislators were to be seen in
the 500-seat main auditorium that day. They were not listening to
the speeches being delivered from the podium, but were mostly
deep in conversation with colleagues.
On average, the number of legislators attending commission
hearings only reaches about 50 percent or less of those who are
supposed be in attendance.
When Commission II for government affairs held a hearing with
Minister for Administrative Reform Feisal Tamin, only 18
legislators were in their seats at the start of the meeting, even
after it had been delayed for some time. Other legislators
arrived later while at the same time some of their colleagues
left to go to other meetings.
During a hearing with Attorney General M.A. Rachman, only 26
of the 62 commission members were present.
Usually, the excuse is that they have to leave on other
business. But money, as always, seems to play a significant role.
Patrialis Akbar from the Reform faction confirmed that the
number of meetings a legislator attended determined the amount of
cash they would get. For the deliberation of each bill that takes
between 2 and 3 months, a legislator receives Rp 750,000 (US$77)
in attendance allowances.
It must have come as a godsend to legislators to be allowed to
become members of different teams deliberating various bills as
they can earn more cash by appearing for a moment in one room
before moving on to others. Thus, the game of "musical chairs"
has become popular.
The question is, are they able to focus on each subject being
deliberated? Skepticism would appear to be justified as data from
the secretariat of the House's legislation bureau shows that
legislators are slated to finish the deliberation of 58 bills
during fiscal 2001.
Given such a workload, each legislator would need to be
registered on three different committees for the deliberation of
three different bills.
Commenting on this situation, legislation bureau official
Firman Jaya Daeli said that the legislators were ready to handle
their legislative duties. "I think we will be ready and will
improve our performance," Firman told The Jakarta Post.
He revealed that the number of bills to be passed had been
rising significantly following the surrender of legislative
authority from the government to the legislature.
A special assistant to the justice minister Oka Mahendra
earlier said that legislators should be more active in initiating
bills. "The power to create laws is in the legislators' hands and
the government (only) has the right to advance ideas," he said.
Given the present reality, the legislature had no choice but
to move forward in initiating an increasing number of bills.
Quality, perhaps, would need to be the next area that required
improvement. (08)