House pledges to endorse all bills by Sept. 19
House pledges to endorse all bills by Sept. 19
JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives has pledged to
endorse eight remaining bills, including an amendment of the
House's internal rules, before its final recess on Sept. 19.
Chairman of the House consultative body Soerjadi said
yesterday that deliberation of all but two bills needed extra
time because of unsettled debates.
Soerjadi said barring any unforeseen problems, the
controversial manpower bill would pass on Sept. 15, one week
later than originally scheduled.
He said approval of the futures commodity trading bill was
rescheduled for Sept. 12 to give the government and the House
enough time to reach a compromise over their debate on a special
team assigned to set up a futures commodity exchange. The House's
objection to the team's establishment caused the postponement of
the bill's passage on Aug. 28.
"In principle we agreed to reschedule because we don't want to
see a bill returned for deliberation for a second time any more,"
said Soerjadi, who is deputy House speaker of the Indonesian
Democratic Party.
He was referring to the broadcasting bill which received House
endorsement last December but was rejected by President Soeharto
due to some problematic articles. The bill's second deliberation
will begin Monday.
The House is expected to pass the environment bill today, the
military tribunal bill, the military discipline bill, the
mobilization bill and the police bill on Sept. 8, the
broadcasting bill on Sept. 12 and an amendment of the House
internal rules on Sept. 19.
With the passage of the eight bills, the House will have 72
bills under its belt during its five-year service. The House term
will expire Sept. 30.
Soerjadi said the House leadership previously expected to
endorse all remaining bills one week before the closing of House
deliberations on Sept. 19.
"We will have enough time to improve imperfect bills if there
are any. If one is to be passed on the eve of the recess, we
won't have a chance to mend it," he said.
Internal rules
According to Soerjadi, the House intentionally planned to
approve the amendment of the House internal rules at the end of
its session, unless it would affect current legislators.
The rules, which received acceptance from the House, will
apply to the next House whose term will begin Oct. 1.
Among important changes of the rules is the reorganization of
House commissions from 11 to just eight.
The number of commissions was reduced in anticipation of
procedural problems which might arise due to the small number of
PDI legislators elected to the House.
The next House will have commissions dealing with defense,
security and legal affairs; foreign policy and internal affairs;
agriculture, food and transmigration; transportation and
infrastructure; trade and industry, which includes cooperatives;
social welfare; religious affairs and education, including
technology; and finance, state budget and statistics.
Commenting on the second deliberation of the broadcasting
bill, Soerjadi said it should open discussions of articles other
than those announced by Minister of Information R. Hartono.
Hartono said that the deliberation was likely to focus on
television's span of coverage, the use of dubbing and the term of
licenses given to private TV stations. (amd)