House urged to punish lazy, defiant legislators
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The attendance record of legislators in the past four sitting periods from August 2001 through July 2002 has shown no improvement, and this has prompted journalists covering the House of Representatives (DPR) to call for the establishment of a disciplinary committee to address the problem.
The forum of journalists covering House activities also urged leaders of the nine factions in the House to punish lazy and defiant legislators.
Based on the monitoring of the forum, the attendance record of legislators ranged from 13 percent to 92 percent.
The forum noted that nine lawmakers failed to attend any commission meetings in the period of May, June and July 2002.
They were President Megawati Soekarnoputri's husband Taufik Kiemas, Muh. Nawir, Benny Pasaribu, Fuad Amin Imron, Probosutejo, Amien Rais, Sutjipto, Cholil Bisri and Husni Thamrin.
The last four are speaker and deputy speakers of the People's Consultative Assembly.
The forum also noted that four people attended only one of the many commission meetings in the May-July period. They were Arifin Panigoro, Guruh Soekarnoputra, Hartono Mardjono and Bambang Pranoto.
Speaking at a press briefing on Friday, Hanif Sobari of the journalist forum disclosed that it was often the same legislators who rarely attended legislative meetings.
"The absence of legislators at the various meetings in the House is a betrayal of the people's trust," Hanif read out in a statement.
Hanif said that many legislators often signed attendance lists but skipped the meetings.
Data collected by the forum show that in the first sitting period of 2001 in August, September and October, the National Awakening Party (PKB) had the worse attendance record at commission meetings of only 62.87 percent.
This position was followed by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) with 63.27 percent and the United Development Party (PPP) with 64.13 percent.
The military-police faction showed the best attendance performance with 88.14 percent.
In this same period, 14 legislators never showed up and 30 legislators attended less than 30 percent of commission meetings.
In the second sitting period of November through December 2001, the Indonesian Nationhood Unity faction (FKKI), an alliance of small parties, recorded the poorest performance with an attendance record of 49.15 percent.
Article 6, Paragraph 1 of the House's internal rules states that all legislators have to give their duties top priority by physically attending House meetings.
The second paragraph stipulates that three absences in a series of meetings without consent is in violation of the code of ethics.
"This is disheartening, considering that the House has more power in legislation following amendments to the 1945 Constitution," said Suradi, chairman of the forum.
Meanwhile, legislator Djoko Susilo, a member of a committee deliberating the controversial broadcasting bill, revealed that some members of the committee had never attended meetings.
"The committee has been working for two years, but there are some committee members who have never attended our deliberation meetings," he said.