Legislators voc to finish 46 bills in just 35 days

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite its poor legislation track record, the House of Representatives (DPR) is again aiming high -- planning to deliberate 46 bills in just 35 working days.

Speaking at the House opening plenary meeting on Monday, Speaker Akbar Tandjung said that more than half of the bills were drafted by House members.

"Of the 46 bills, 31 were prepared by the House and 15 were drafted by government officials," said Akbar, who is also a Golkar presidential candidate.

The pledge meant House members would have to vote on more than one bill every day in order to pass their proposed bills into law.

The House has made similar pledges in the past but has never yet made good on its promises.

The plenary meeting was attended by only 262 of the 500 House members, par for the course for a body that is generally poorly attended.

In past sessions the House has always missed its legislation targets. On average lawmakers could only finish 25 percent of proposed bills.

The poor legislation record has been blamed on political bickering and poor discipline among legislators.

The Mass Communications Forum (FKM), an organization of journalists covering the House, has disclosed that most legislators attended less than 30 percent of its meetings.

The group predicted absenteeism among lawmakers would worsen in the coming months as politicians would be busy with their campaign preparations.

Subianto Soedardjo, head of the House secretariat, doubted the ability of legislators to fulfill their promises given the fact that 13 of the 46 bills were still at the State Secretariat, awaiting a green light from President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who had yet to distribute them to Cabinet Ministers.

Akbar, meanwhile, called on House members to show their commitment to prioritizing the bills' deliberation.

Among the bills listed for deliberation is the revision to Law No.22/1999 on regional administration.

The government has prepared a draft revision of the bill. The House's Legislation Body (Baleg) has prepared its own version, which focuses on the adoption of direct elections of governors and regents throughout the country.

Another bill which needs urgent deliberation is the presidency bill. The House finished the bill's draft and sent it to the State Secretariat on Dec. 6, 2001.

Akbar disclosed House leaders had sent a letter to the President three times, demanding her to quickly assign a minister to deliberate the bill with legislators.

"The bill should have been endorsed before the presidential election scheduled for July 5," he said.

The other bills to be deliberated are on water resources and the Batam free trade zone.

Akbar said that the remaining office term for the legislators - the product of the 1999 elections - was less than four months.

He said that the coming session would end on March 10 followed by a month-long recess from March 11 through to April 11. The next sitting session would be from April 12 till mid-July. A further recess would be from mid-July through to mid-August.

The last session for the current legislators would be from mid-August through to Sept. 30 when the lawmakers would end their five-year terms, he said.

"We hope the legislators will spend their remaining time focussing on solving problems for the people."

Legislative Record in 2003 =============================================================== No. Period Target Approved bills

1. Jan.13 - March 7 53 Creation of 23 regencies and two

municipalities, Elections, Manpower

Protection, The Advocates Profession

2. April 28 - July 9 41 State enterprises, Education system,

ILO convention, Presidential

Election, Constitutional Court

3. Aug.15 - Sept.26 31 Money Laundering, Geothermal

Resources, State budget revision

4. Oct.27 - Dec.19 45 13 bills in 24 regencies, 2004 state

budget, Settlement of industrial

disputes, Bank Indonesia, State

treasury, Judicial Power, Supreme

Court -----------------------------------------------------------------