Hamid defends pace of draft bills
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Justice minister Hamid Awaluddin has said, in response to the criticism of some lawmakers, the government cannot move faster in drafting bills as it would run the risk of producing weak laws.
The weak laws, he explained, would only end up being reviewed by the Constitutional Court.
"The situation is different from in the past. Now we have the Constitutional Court," he said, prior to a hearing with the House's legislative body on Monday.
He referred to some 45 laws that had over the last two years been reviewed by the Constitutional Court shortly after being endorsed by the House.
Hamid said Law No. 10/2004 on the law-making process required both the House and the government to synchronize the proposed bills with prevailing laws, and hold public hearings with all stakeholders, before they were submitted to the House legislative body for deliberation and endorsement.
"The slow preparation should not be seen merely in terms of its time frame but in terms of the bills' substance. The government won't quickly submit questionable bills which, if passed into laws, would be reviewed by the Constitutional Court," he said.
The House of Representatives has been criticized for its poor performance in carrying out its main legislative task as, out of the targeted 55 bills to be deliberated this year, so far only six have been passed into laws.
But chairman of the House's legislative body Muhammad A.S. Hikam blamed the government for the weak law-making performance, saying that the government had not been cooperative.
"The government has moved very slowly. Many special committees and commissions have been set up to discuss the 55 bills, but they have remained 'out of work' because they could not deliberate the bills without the government's presence," he said.
Some lawmakers have criticized Hamid for failing to give attention to the legislation task due to his part in the peace talks with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which produced the Aug. 15 peace agreement.
Hikam added that the political rift between major political parties in the House during the first few months after the current members were inaugurated had also contributed to the poor performance of the lawmakers in producing laws.
He pointed out the fact that the House's legislative body only started work in March, six months after the 550 members of the House were sworn in, as legislators were focused on the increased rivalry between the now-dissolved nationhood coalition and the people's coalition.
The six bills endorsed this year included four bills on religious high courts in Banten, Bangka-Belitung, North Maluku and Gorontalo, a bill on sports and a bill on the 2006 state budget.
Criticism of the House members over the poor legislation performance came amid reports the House had decided to provide an additional monthly allowance of Rp 10 million for lawmakers in consideration of rising living costs after the Oct. 1 fuel price increases.
Recent surveys showed the public's disappointment over the House's performance.
Elsewhere, Hikam said that in 2006, the House and the government have targeted to deliberate 40 bills, excluding those left over from 2005.
"We have agreed to propose less (than the target in 2005) for fear that we could not reach the maximum target," he said.
He said the House and the government would give top priority to the deliberation of the bill on the UN convention against transnational organized crime; the bill on the UN protocol to prevent, suppress and punish human trafficking; the bill on the UN convention against corruption; and the bill on the UN convention against terrorism.
"The bills have long been awaited to give the authorities greater legal power to fight terrorism, corruption and transnational organized crime," he said.