House only finishes two of 30 bills

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In a repeat of past performances, the House of Representatives (DPR) will once again have failed to meet its legislation target when it closes on Friday, after holding deliberations from Aug. 15 to Sept. 26.

Of the 30 bills set for deliberation during the August- September session, the lawmakers could only finish two bills, on the revision to the money laundering law on Sept. 16 and on geothermal on Sept. 23.

The lawmakers will enter a recess period from Sept. 27 through Oct. 24.

A member of the House's legislative body (Baleg), Baharuddin Aritonang, said on Thursday it was normal for anyone to fail to meet their target.

"But, it is true that the discrepancy between the target and its realization (of the legislation) is too wide. We will improve our performance," Aritonang of the Golkar Party faction said.

Aritonang said he would propose that legislators use their recess time to deliberate the bills.

Fellow legislator Djasri Marin of the Military/Police faction, however, offered another explanation. He said that the legislators' failure to finish deliberation of the bills was due to their enthusiasm in accommodating different aspirations.

At the opening of the session on Aug. 15, House Speaker Akbar Tandjung reminded legislators that they were expected to complete deliberation of the 30 bills.

The bills were an accumulation of unfinished bills, whose deliberation the legislators had failed to complete in previous sittings since January 2002.

Of the targeted 41 bills for deliberation in the April-July session, the House only endorsed five bills. Legislators and the government had to work during recess to meet the deadline for the establishment of the Constitutional Court.

Then, Akbar offered an excuse, arguing that the poor legislation record was due to the House's willingness to accommodate public aspirations during deliberation.

He also blamed the government for the House's failure, saying that it took "forever" for the government to appoint related ministers to deliberate the bills drafted by the House, thus stalling the process.

Djasri concurred with Akbar, saying that the government shared the blame in the House's failure to complete its task.

Citing an example, Djasri said the House could not start deliberation of the bill on the establishment of new regencies because the President had not assigned any minister to the meeting.