House urged to punish lazy, defiant legislators

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.