On accountability speech, once a year is too often

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Golkar Party has proposed a review of the practice of the presidential accountability report being given on an annual basis, as practiced over the past two years, because it is inefficient.

Golkar Party chairman Akbar Tandjung said on Monday that an annual session used up too much money and energy, which Indonesia desperately needed for other urgent state priorities.

The current 10-day session has necessitated a budget of Rp 18 billion. Legislators say that the budget is less than what is needed, forcing them to stay at the five-star Hotel Mulia at a four-star rate.

"If the session is held annually, the Assembly makes too many decrees, which rank second only to the 1945 Constitution as state instruments," he said.

Prior to 1999, the president was required to present an accountability report only once every five years. After president Soeharto resigned in disgrace in 1998, the Assembly and House of Representatives wanted stronger supervision of the president.

The first move to scrap the annual session came from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), which saw the activity as very costly and of little use.

Moreover, dealing with the president's accountability report is not part of the Assembly's constitutional job, which consists only of making the Guidelines of State Policy and amending the Constitution.

Political observer Riswandha Imawan of Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, said an annual session had unnecessarily added to the president's burden.

"The Indonesian government is treated like a contractor, with the Assembly being the employer who wants to have a progress report every year. Thus, if the Assembly issued a new contract every year, when would the government be able to accomplish it?" he said.