House sitting on a pile of bills

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,