House sitting on a pile of bills

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Fresh from a six-week recess, House of Representatives legislators started on Monday their new sitting period, with nearly 60 bills lined up for deliberation.

In view of the fact that the lawmakers have only seven weeks to complete pending legislation, House Speaker Akbar Tandjung urged legislators to work efficiently and to make maximum use of the time available.

"I remind all the House members to attend all future meetings ... considering that we still have a lot of work to do."

Deputy House speakers Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Muhaimin Iskandar of the National Awakening Party (PKB), and A.M. Fatwa of the National Awakening Party (PAN) were also present at the plenary session.

In the current sitting period, which will last seven weeks, legislators will need to work day and night due to the backlog of bills from the previous session that ended on March 6.

Last session, the House managed only to endorse four out of a targeted 54 bills. The bills approved were on water resources, revision of the Supreme Court law, revision of the public courts law, and revision of the administrative court law.

Altogether there are 57 bills on the list for the current sitting period. The legislators will also elect the chairman and members of the State Audit Body (BPK) whose term ended in October last year and conduct a fit and proper test on candidates for the Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor position.

The list of pending bills include the mechanism for enacting legislation, eradication of racial and ethnic discrimination, witness and victim protection, ombudsman, formation of new regencies, high courts, fisheries, postal affairs, agriculture, Batam free trade area, social security, sports, amendment to the law on Islamic pilgrimage, medical practice, protection of migrant workers, national health insurance, bank liquidity, credit, national development planning system, currency, the Jakarta administration, credit guarantee, State Audit Agency (BPK), pornography, formation of West Sulawesi province, foundations, terrorism, the presidency, judicial commission, truth and reconciliation commission, prosecutors, freedom of information, state ministers and the amendment to the law on fiscal balance between central and regional governments.

The lawmakers will have the last session in July before their term ends in September.

Of 500 House members, only 324 signed the attendance register and stayed in the chamber until House speaker Akbar Tandjung closed the plenary session.

The gathering opened at around 10 p.m., after an hour's delay to wait for a quorum.

Akbar also called on the lawmakers to draw up a list of problems they encountered during their five-year tenure, which would be shared with the new House members elected in the April 5 election.

Many of the current legislators, who had campaigned for their reelection during the recess, will have to relinquish their seats to either their successors or competitors as a result of the legislative election,