House off on holiday, leaving plethora of outstanding bills

House off on holiday, leaving plethora of outstanding bills

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives closed its session on Wednesday with
the same old problem -- a massive backlog of outstanding bills.

In the session from April 28 to July 9, the House only managed
to endorse five out of the 41 scheduled bills: the national
education bill, ILO convention on manpower supervision bill,
state enterprises bill, presidential elections bill, and the
composition of the legislative bodies bill.

A number of legislators pledged to continue their deliberation
of the constitutional court bill during recess and vowed to bring
the bill up for endorsement on July 31.

"God willing, the constitutional court bill will have been
endorsed by the end of July or early August," House Speaker Akbar
Tandjung told a plenary meeting here on Wednesday.

The government and a number of experts have warned the House
not to rush to endorse the constitutional court bill, but rather
return the matter to the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR),
which will convene its annual session in early August, and ask
the assembly to give more time for the establishment of the
constitutional court.

The House, however, has decided to continue its deliberation
of the bill, and has promised to finish it before August 17.

In an attempt to meet the August 17, 2003 target for the
establishment of the constitutional court, Akbar said the House
would organize an extraordinary plenary meeting during recess to
endorse the bill either on July 31 or August 11, 2003.

The time needed to finish the deliberation of the bill, Akbar
said, was because of the many contentious issues in the bill as
well as the legislators' desire to hear the views of the public.

"All bills that have not been finished will be deliberated in
the next session," Akbar said.

He added that among the bills that would receive top priority
were those on the Supreme Court, the State Administrative Court,
the public courts, the prosecutor's office, the protection of
Indonesians working overseas, and the resolution of industrial
disputes.

With the closing speech by the House speaker, the legislators
will be on holiday from July 10 through August 14. In early
August, they will participate in the MPR's annual session.

Touching on the House's supervisory role, Akbar said the House
planned to summon the President to explain the loss of Sipadan
and Ligitan islands, to investigate the sale of PT Indosat, and
to investigate the purchase of Russian Sukhoi jet fighters and
helicopters.

The House, Akbar said, would also keep on monitoring the
military emergency in Aceh. He said that the joint operation in
the province was on the right track.

The House has formed a team to evaluate the joint operation,
which has now been running for 50 days.

Meanwhile, the plenary meeting on Wednesday also endorsed the
establishment of a special committee to deliberate the bill on
the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission.

The special committee consists of 50 members from various
factions.