Only 50 legislators bother to attend House plenary meeting
Only 50 legislators bother to attend House plenary meeting
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The House of Representatives (DPR) wound up its seven-week long
session on Friday with only about 50 legislators showing up at
the plenary meeting to hear the closing speech of House Speaker
Akbar Tandjung.
The legislators will now enjoy a six-week recess, which many
of them will use to campaign for their reelection in the upcoming
legislative election scheduled for April 5.
Signs that the closing meeting was going to be poorly attended
were apparent from early in the morning when the plenary meeting
discussed a proposal to probe the sale of state
telecommunications firm PT Indosat.
Although 251 legislators signed the attendance list, only 187
of 500 House members were actually present in the chamber.
The number of legislators attending the meeting had dropped
significantly by the time Akbar, whom the Supreme Court acquitted
recently of corruption, reopened the plenary meeting after the
Muslim Friday prayers.
Golkar legislator Baharuddin Aritonang dismissed speculation
that the poor attendance was a slap in the face to Akbar, who is
also the chairman of Golkar.
"The poor attendance has nothing to do with Akbar's leadership
but simply shows the legislators' lack of responsibility. House
members often skip meetings, but always draw their salaries. This
is embarrassing," he added.
During the plenary meeting, Akbar was accompanied by House
deputy speakers Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno of the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Muhaimin Iskandar of the
National Awakening Party (PKB), and Tosari Widjaja of the United
Development Party (PPP).
Soetardjo also expressed concern over the poor level of
attendance, but made no suggestions as to how attendance could be
improved.
In his speech, Akbar said the legislators had endorsed only
four out of the targeted 54 bills. The four bills included water
resources bill, the revision of the public courts law, and the
revision of the administrative court law.
He said that the pending bills would be deliberated in the
next session.
The legislators, he added, would have two other sessions -- in
April and September respectively.
Akbar also called on legislators to draw up a priority list
for the bills to be deliberated given that there was not enough
time to discuss all the bills.
He added that the legislators elected during the April 5
election would start deliberating the pending bills right from
the very beginning of the new House term.
The government-sponsored water resources bill was submitted to
the House in November 2002. It took more than a year for the
House and the government to discuss it before finally endorsing
it last month.
"We hope the government will give the public information about
the substance of the controversial bill," Akbar said.
Concerning the revisions of the laws on the public courts and
administrative court, Akbar said he hoped the revisions would
improve judicial independence.
Attendance list prior to closing speech
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No. Factions Members Attendance Percentage
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1. PDI-P 153 71 46 percent
2. Golkar 120 33 27 percent
3. PPP 58 10 17 percent
4. PKB 51 8 15 percent
5. Reform 41 20 48 percent
6. Military 38 33 86 percent
7. PBB 12 4 33 percent
8. KKI 11 6 54 percent
9. PDU 10 2 20 percent
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