Legislators complain of being overburdened

By Dwi Atmanta

JAKARTA (JP): Legislators complained yesterday of too great a burden with draft bills galore expected to be finished by the end of their terms.

With less than nine months remaining before September -- not to mention the run-up to the May general election which will keep them from their legislative jobs for two months starting April -- the legislators have 22 draft bills left to be deliberated and approved.

The 500 members of the House of Representatives will end their five-year terms on Sept. 30, with more than half of them leaving their seats. Their successors will be sworn in on Oct. 1.

"I'm afraid we are running out of time for thorough deliberations on the drafts. Working in haste will only force us to produce bills which receive strong opposition from the public," said Krissantono of the ruling Golkar faction.

Krissantono added that a last minute overload for the House had become a trend, at least in his three successive terms in office.

To make matters worse, more than half the current legislators were likely to lose their seats, according to Krissantono.

"This will invite questions about the moral responsibility of the legislators, and whether they (the outgoing legislators) will maintain their commitment (in their deliberation of the bills)," he said.

With yesterday's approval of the bill on the 1988 United Nations Convention on Illicit Traffic of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, the House has endorsed 47 draft bills since it began working in October 1992.

The legislator, however, places the blame on the government.

The law states the House of Representatives is entitled to produce draft laws of its own; this right, however, has so far not been exercised. All the laws passed this term or currently under deliberation were government-sponsored.

Krissantono said the government should learn from the public's harsh reaction to the traffic law passed in 1992.

Following mounting criticism about the heavy penalties of the traffic law, the government announced a one-year delay in its enforcement to give the public time to "prepare" for its implementation.

The House's endorsement of the controversial traffic bill caused rumors that each member involved in the deliberations had received a bagful of money from the government.

Suspicion

Krissantono said these suspicions would have never emerged if the government better arranged the flow of drafts submitted to the House.

He warned the draft bill on local taxes and levies now being discussed by the House could meet the same fate as the 1992 traffic bill.

United Development Party (PPP) member Aisyah Amini echoed Krissantono's complaint, saying House members have been forced to work day and night to meet the deadlines for the draft bills' deliberations.

"I cannot imagine how intensive discussions of the remaining draft bills will be, because some of us are focusing on preparations for the general election," Aisyah said.

She said, however, the limited time did not mean the House would be slack in its deliberation of the bills. The House would not let the drafts be passed without strong debates.

"We made substantial changes to some of the drafts," she said. The bill on broadcasting had 20 chapters over the original 58 added during deliberations, she said.

Aisyah suggested the government improve the national legislation program initiated early in 1970s. The program obliges the Ministry of Justice to draw up a so-called master-plan of draft bills to be submitted to the House in a five-year term.

Krissantono said the lack of coordination among government offices was to blame for the accumulation of draft bills.

"It sometimes takes a draft bill years of examination at the Minister/State Secretary's office before it reaches the House," Krissantono said.