House committee split on scope of rules review

House committee split on scope of rules review

JAKARTA (JP): The committee to review the House of
Representatives' internal rules entered its second day of
deliberations yesterday divided over the scope of its work.

Golkar legislator Syamsul Mu'arif said the committee should
leave talks on cutting the number of House commissions to a
plenary meeting.

Syamsul, who assumed the gavel for the House rules review
committee yesterday from its chairman Soerjadi, said that present
members should not try to change the number of commissions.

This was for new House members, who will be sworn in on Oct.
1, to determine, he said.

Armed Forces legislator L.J. Arifin said the committee should
try to cover as many issues as possible, including the number of
commissions.

Markus Wauran of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) said
the committee was too small to deliberate crucial issues such as
the House's internal rules.

The matters should be brought up in an open plenary meeting to
allow maximum discussion, he said.

The decision to review the House's internal rules and
proceedings came following the PDI's election debacle in May
which saw its representation in the House slashed from 52 seats
to 11 in the next term which begins in October.

PDI and the other minority party, the United Development Party
(PPP), have long demanded changes in the House's internal rules
which they said were too restrictive and stifled democracy.
Golkar, which has a strong majority in the House, has opposed
their demands.

At the center of the debate is the number of commissions in
the House. With 11 commissions, the PDI will only be able to
field one representative in each commission. This means that
should its representative fail to turn up, a commission, under
current House rules, could not hold a meeting, let alone make a
decision.

Some legislators have suggested merging the House commissions,
but others have proposed doing away with the power of House
factions by allowing decisions to be made by head counts.

House leaders have given the committee until July 22 to come
up with recommendations, hoping that any new rules could be
enacted before legislators end their five-year term in September.

Syamsul said yesterday's committee meeting had discussed the
schedule, mechanism and scope of its work.

The meeting had made an inventory of issues to be discussed by
the committee, he said.

He said the proposals from each faction would be made public
before discussions on them begin in earnest on July 10.

Last March, the PPP faction tried to submit a paper on rule
changes to the House but it was rejected even before it reached
the floor.

PPP legislator Alimarwan Hanan said his faction was proposing
to do away with a rule requiring that a commission meeting must
be attended by every faction. A quorum based on minimum
attendance should suffice, he said.

The faction was proposing that House rules formally stipulate
that members work five days a week, something which was already
practiced although the rules still recognized a six-day working
week, Alimarwan said.

The PPP was also proposing to eliminate the Budgetary
Commission and replace it with a committee consisting of
representatives from each of the 10 commissions, he said. (39)