House relaxes rule on proposal of bills

House relaxes rule on proposal of bills

JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives ended its five-year
sitting yesterday leaving what was probably the best legacy it
could pass on to its successor: slightly less stringent
requirements on initiating legislation.

It remains to be seen whether the new internal rule, passed at
a plenary session yesterday, would be sufficient to allow the
House to actually initiate a bill for once.

Under the new rule, a bill should be sponsored by at least 10
legislators from two different factions. It also says that a
commission, or a joint commission, could initiate a bill.

The old rule, requiring a minimum of 20 sponsors from two
factions, made it virtually impossible for members to bring up a
bill for discussion at the House. All laws passed during the New
Order era have been initiated by the government.

In the past, minority parties' plans to initiate a bill were
thwarted by their inability to obtain support from the other
political factions.

The new House will be installed by President Soeharto on Oct.
1.

All four factions in the House -- the dominant Golkar, the
Armed Forces, the United Development Party (PPP) and the
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) -- hailed the new ruling
yesterday.

PDI faction spokesman Tyas Satijono said the greater
flexibility in initiating bills meant that the next House should
be able to accommodate more public interests.

"The new internal rule should help bring public aspirations on
par with government interests in our legal system," Tyas said.

PPP faction spokesman Dja'far Siddiq said he looked forward to
the time when the House would be able to initiate its own bills
in the next five years.

Dja'far, however, kept his hopes realistic, saying that in the
end, substance counted more than internal procedures.

"Whoever sponsors a bill must have reasonable arguments about
its substance and urgency, and pass the test from fellow
legislators, experts and the public," he said.

But at least, the new rule reflected the House's decision not
to bind itself with procedural matters, he said.

Golkar agreed to relax the internal rule, but insisted that a
bill must have the support of legislators from at least two
different factions to be considered.

"A dictatorship by the majority will emerge if a single
faction is allowed to exercise the right (to propose a bill),"
Golkar spokesman Umbu Mehang Kunda said.

The new rule also says that only 10 members from two factions
are required for the House to demand a government explanation of
a certain policy, to make a statement of support or opposition to
a policy and to propose an investigation.

Another major change in internal rules was the reduction of
House commissions from 11 to eight to accommodate PDI's tiny team
of 11 members in the next House.

The decision to change internal rules was prompted by the PDI
debacle in the May general election. The party managed only to
win a few seats in the House that would have prevented it from
having enough representatives in all House commissions. (amd)