Hamid defends pace of draft bills

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.