PDI wants fewer House commissions

PDI wants fewer House commissions

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), which won
only 11 of the 425 House of Representatives seats contested in
the May election, is seeking to reduce the number of House
commissions to suit its tiny minority.

PDI legislator Markus Wauran said yesterday that he believed
the number of commissions should be cut from 11 to five so the
House would become more efficient.

A special committee of representatives of the House's four
factions has been meeting since July 9 to review the 1983 House
Internal Rules and is expected to release its recommendations by
July 22.

"We will definitely ask for a cut in the number of House
commissions," Markus said.

The PDI's poor election performance was a far cry from the 56
seats it won in the 1992 election.

PDI chairman Soerjadi, who toppled popular PDI chief Megawati
Soekarnoputri, lost his seat in the 500-seat House, and will have
to give it up when its new members are inducted on Oct. 1.

The government-backed Golkar party won 325 seats, and the
United Development Party (PPP) won 89 seats in the election.
Representatives of the Armed Forces, whose members do not vote,
will occupy the House's remaining 75 seats.

House decisions are only valid if all four factions are
represented. This means the PDI must field at least one
legislator at every decision-making session. This burden is
increased by the obligation that each faction is expected to
field a deputy House Speaker.

According to Article 57 of the House's internal rules, the
House speaker and his deputies cannot be commission members.
Therefore, unless the number of commissions is cut, one PDI
member will have to sit on two commissions.

House commission I, for instance, deals with foreign affairs,
politics and information; commission II is on home affairs;
commission III is on legal affairs; and commission IX is on
science and education.

Hard

Markus told The Jakarta Post that it would be very hard for a
legislator to attend every session of a commission.

But Markus said the PDI had not decided on how many
commissions to propose.

"There should be at least two legislators in one commission.
So the ideal number of commissions, for PDI, should be five," he
said.

But Golkar legislator Syamsul Mu'arif brushed off the idea.

"One commission would then be too big because it would have to
accommodate 100 House members," he said. "Even the rooms
available are not big enough for that."

Syamsul suggested seven or eight commissions. "There should be
one PDI legislator for each commission, one as deputy speaker,
one as the faction's leader, one in the committee for inter-
parliamentary cooperation and one in the household committee," he
said.

A smaller working group would be set up to work on a detailed
draft of recommendations. A plenary session has to approve any
changes to the internal rules, which have 176 articles, before
they can be introduced.

Golkar proposed yesterday that commission chairpersons should
only be appointed if they were nominated by three other
commission members.

PDI disagreed. Markus said this would only help Golkar
dominate the commissions' leadership at the expense of the PDI
which would not be able to field three representatives in any
particular commission.

The newly elected legislators will begin their duty on Oct. 1.
(35/amd)