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.