House marked by graft and low productivity
House marked by graft and low productivity
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Saddled with bribery scandals, the House of Representatives (DPR)
closed its six-week sitting period on Friday with an apparent
poor performance in legislative activities by having finished
deliberations of only seven bills from the targeted 29 draft
laws.
Worsening its battered image, the session on Friday was marked
by a number of legislators walking out in an apparent protest
against the leadership of its convicted speaker, Akbar Tandjung.
Undeterred by the walkout, led by legislator Dwi Ria Latifa
from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
Perjuangan), Akbar continued to chair the closing session and
boasted that 40 bills were currently in the process of
deliberation in the House.
"The unfinished bills will be brought for deliberation in the
next sitting period," said Akbar, who was convicted of embezzling
Rp 40 billion (US$4.4 million) of state funds and given a three-
year jail sentence. But he remains free pending decisions on his
appeal.
The next sitting session will start on Oct. 28.
During the August-September sitting, the House passed only six
of the 29 bills deliberated during the period, most of which were
carried over from the previous sitting.
The six bills are those on a presidential pardon, electricity,
a revision to the 2002 state budget, state bonds, child
protection, the establishment of the Riau Islands province and
the revocation of Law No.25/1997 on manpower.
Akbar also vowed that the House would have finished the
deliberation of the much-awaited political bills by early 2003.
By then, the legislators should have finished the deliberation
of bills on the Constitutional Court, Judicial Commission,
presidential elections and composition of legislative bodies.
Compared to past sessions, the performance of legislators in
this sitting period was an improvement as there were only two to
four bills completed in the past two sittings.
The inability of the House to meet its targeted bills was
often shown in political bickering among legislators and their
poor attendance records.
With 72 legislators maneuvering to make a petition against
Akbar, the legislature's target in the next sitting period could
possibly repeat the same failure.
The next sitting period could be worsened with the revelation
that two legislators from PDI Perjuangan, Meliono Suwondo and
Indira Damayanti Sugondo, were offered a bribe that amounted to
US$1,000, in connection with the proposed sale of Bank Niaga.
Their confession had prompted several legislators to demand
the establishment of a disciplinary committee to launch an
inquiry into the bribery.
And if this maneuver carries on, it would certainly interrupt
the legislature's agenda.
The House's legislative duties will also be marred by poor
attendance as what has happened at past sittings.
Worse still, legislators often endorse bills amid poor
attendance, raising questions about the legality of the passed
bills.
The move was apparently to cut short the deliberation process.
If the House had to wait until a quorum was reached, there would
possibly be no new laws passed due to several lazy and defiant
legislators.
Despite its poor performance in legislation, the House
continues to receive government proposals to create new laws or
make revisions to existing laws.
In this six-week sitting period, the House received, among
other things, five laws to revise on judicial affairs, including
revisions to the laws on justice, ordinary trials, the Supreme
Court, the attorney general's office and the state administrative
court.
In addition, the House's Legislative Body also continues with
its work in drafting new bills.
The legislators proposed a number of bills on the
establishment of several new regencies in remote areas throughout
the country.
With the House's poor performance, these new bills will only
add to the long list of those already stalled in the House's
hands.