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 ---------------------------------------------------------- No. Factions Members Attendance Percentage ---------------------------------------------------------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------------