Needy lawmakers seek extra money
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
They come, stay a while, murmur a few words, laugh, leave and get paid.
A few of the House of Representatives lawmakers do raise their voices and deliver critical points, but most of the time they are overshadowed by a host of others who are busy with their cellular phones and cigarettes, or just taking a comfortable nap.
Some ask questions during hearing sessions, but then check out of the room before an answer is produced.
Some arrive ridiculously late, at times just as a session is wrapping up, just to sign the attendance list.
Those who fail to turn up for scheduled meetings are often not in their offices because they are either out of the city or the country, sometimes on business unrelated to their job.
Quite recently, Fridays have stopped being a workday, although their own regulations say otherwise. Fridays are officially designated for lawmakers to engage with their respective factions, perhaps to discuss various important issues.
The 550 House members have on their hands 55 bills that are scheduled to be completed this year, which increasingly appears unlikely to happen. These 55 bills are among 284 drafts scheduled for completion by the end of the lawmakers' term in 2009.
To date, eight months after their inauguration, the lawmakers have only passed the revision of the 2005 state budget, which happened last week.
They just began the deliberation of a sports bill last week, while other crucial bills are only in the early stages of deliberation. All of this work will come to a pause when the House begins its scheduled month-long recess starting July 8.
House Speaker Agung Laksono stands by his promise that the legislative body will finish deliberating and pass the 55 bills this year.
As well they might, given that the House Secretariat recently completed a proposal to raise the salaries of lawmakers by over 100 percent.
There is also a proposal to give legislators bigger allowances, for the purpose of helping the lawmakers spend more time with their constituents across the country.
A final proposal says House members will be provided with an additional Rp 15 million (US$1,560), deputy speakers Rp 22 million and the speaker Rp 30 million for unspecified "operational work".
The House Secretariat says most of the additional money will be for allowances for trips and services, which in theory should be reimbursed only after the job is done.
The proposal, however, lumps these allowances into the lawmakers' fixed take-home pay.
Legislators recently said their "poor performance" was largely the result of their "low" salaries, which left them with little money to take business trips or rent hotel conference rooms to draft bills.
Several others say larger allowances are necessary to hire experts to assist them in their legislative function.
Tommy Legowo from the legislative watchdog Formappi supports efforts to fairly compensate lawmakers, but warns against giving them more cash in the form of allowances.
"If they receive cash, who knows what they will spend it on. I support the idea of improving their welfare but only if it is tied to efforts to enhance their performance, but the money should be properly allocated," he said on Saturday.
Tommy, who is a researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said lawmakers had been making progress compared to their predecessors in terms of their critical outlook.
"But there are still moments where they engage in debates that are not substantial but only concern procedural issues," he said.