House refuses to discuss bill on development plan

House refuses to discuss bill on development plan

JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives on Monday postponed
initial hearing on a bill on the National Development Program
(Propenas) due to the absence of Coordinating Minister for the
Economy Rizal Ramli.

In a plenary session, led by House deputy speaker A.M. Fatwa,
legislators decided to postpone the hearing although Rizal had
assigned State Minister for Cooperatives and Small/Medium
Enterprises Zarkasih Noer and Junior Minister for the
Restructuring of the National Economy Cacuk Sudarijanto to
represent him.

It was unclear why Rizal was unable to attend the hearing as
in the morning he had attended a Cabinet meeting at the Merdeka
Palace. According to legislators, they were told Rizal had to go
to Brunei.

Many legislators seemed disappointed with Rizal's absence for
such an important session. Fatwa, after consulting faction
leaders, decided to postpone the proceeding to Tuesday.

"Rizal who was appointed by the President, cannot ask other
ministers to represent him. Zarkasih and Cacuk should be
appointed by the President or Vice-President to represent the
government in discussing the bill," Fatwa later told journalists.

But some legislators felt the decision by the House to
postpone the proceeding based on a technicality was being
overzealous.

"It's just the House being immature," sighed Golkar Party
legislator Hajriyanto Tohari.

Repelita

The Propenas is essentially designed to replace the Replita,
the Five-Year Development Program which was drafted during the
Soeharto era as a blueprint to chart the nation's development.

The drafting of Propenas was set out under the People's
Consultative Assembly's decree No. 4/1999 on state guidelines.

It focuses on five main objectives:

Develop a democratic political system and maintain national
unity.

Uphold legal supremacy and clean governance.

Accelerate economic recovery while enhancing sustainable and
just development.

Ensure people's welfare and cultural resilience.

Foster regional development.

The government claims that Propenas differs greatly from
Repelita in its objectives, concept and formulation.

In its agenda, which is due to be handed to the House,
Propenas, which is designed to cover the 2001-2005 period, adopts
a more strategic approach, focusing on specific and pressing
issues unlike Repelita which was more comprehensive and
sectorial.

This was due to the reality that the state simply lacks the
financial resources to engage in a comprehensive sectorial
development.

Thus only programs considered crucial and directly helps
alleviate the crisis are given priority.

The five objectives was selected after considering several
crosscutting issues: widening people's participation in political
and economic process through decentralization; establishment of
good governance; reducing poverty and economic disparity; gender
equality; and environmental protection.

On the first objective of developing a democratic political
system, Propenas advocates decreasing the military's role in
politics, including reformation within the military institution
itself.

Other issues include elections, political parties and the
relationships between state institutions.

The second objective highlights the problem of upholding the
supremacy of the law and establishing a clean government as a
whole, as many laws are passed but their implementations are weak
due to, among other things, the quality of human resources.

This has also contributed to the lingering crisis.

The third objective, on the economy, stresses the need for
macrostability, bank and corporate debt restructuring and
structural adjustments on the market with the aim of establishing
a people's economy.

The fourth objective on people's welfare and cultural
resilience, points to decentralization as a means of resolving
rising unemployment and the deterioration in the education and
health care system.

The fifth objective aims to further empower the people as past
centralized policies had been unresponsive to local demands and
tended to suppress local innovations. (jun)