Legislators continue their dismal attendance record

Legislators continue their dismal attendance record

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite strong criticism of their performance, members of the
House of Representatives (DPR) remained stubbornly undisciplined
on Tuesday, skipping a scheduled plenary meeting for reasons
known only to them.

Only 122 of the 500 legislators in the DPR were present on
Tuesday when the House was about to approve the nominations of
Bunbunan Hutapea and Aslim Tadjuddin as Bank Indonesia deputy
governors.

The plenary meeting, chaired by Deputy House Speaker Soetardjo
Soerjogoeritno of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
(PDI Perjuangan), endorsed their nominations anyway despite the
apparent poor attendance of DPR members.

Later, their numbers went down to just 87 when the meeting
endorsed a proposal on the establishment of four regencies in
North Maluku province.

Staff members of the House Secretariat reported earlier that
251 legislators had signed the attendance list, prompting
Soetardjo to open the plenary meeting.

The legislators' poor performance reminded the public of a
similar scene last March when only 49 legislators were around to
give their final approval to the crucial money laundering bill.

The low level of discipline of legislators was to blame for
the House's failure to meet its legislation target in the
previous session. Of 24 bills put forward as a priority, the
House only finished three bills.

It has become a common habit among legislators to sign the
attendance list and leave immediately for their personal
business. This habit has worried House leaders who, based on the
House's internal rules, have no authority to impose penalties.

Soetardjo acknowledged on Tuesday that House leaders had
issued five petitions to party and faction leaders to impose
penalties on undisciplined members.

"We have cautioned the parties and factions five times, but
nothing has happened," Soetardjo complained.

House Speaker Akbar Tandjung, a suspect in a Rp 40 billion
graft scandal, echoed Soetardjo's concerns, but was uncertain
about penalties that could be meted out against undisciplined
legislators.

A similar concern was voiced by PDI Perjuangan's legislator
Panda Nababan, who said that it was hard for each commission or
plenary meeting to reach a quorum for a meeting to commence.

"This is terrible. But I don't know why," Panda said.

Djoko Susilo from the National Mandate Party (PAN) raised an
excuse, saying that various duties assigned to legislators were
to blame for their poor attendance in plenary meetings.

"It is impossible for legislators to attend all the
legislative meetings," said Djoko, one of the legislators who
signed the attendance sheet but did not join the plenary session.

He argued that he had to skip the plenary meeting to attend a
meeting of a 12-strong team to verify documents of Presidential
Aid Funds provided by State Secretary Bambang Kesowo and the
deliberation of the broadcasting bill.

Soetardjo and Akbar said the situation could possibly force
legislators to revive the "recall" system which was misused
during the New Order regime to remove government critics from the
legislature.

The recall system, Soetardjo added, would give authority to
executive boards of each party to dismiss undisciplined
legislators.