Reasons why legislators couldn't care less

Moch. N. Kurniawan and Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In the past two years the public has learned to live with a legislature with a lackadaisical attitude toward doing their job in producing much needed laws.

An interview with two legislators shed some light on the reasons for the legislature's low output.

Legislator Mochtar Buchori from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) cited legislators' common inability to set up a priority list.

Mochtar said that he had often found legislators spending excessive amounts of time discussing unsubstantial issues in House of Representative sessions, adding that they could waste days simply debating over their "choice of idioms".

"Once, in a session discussing the National Education system, legislators had heatedly debated over which terms to choose between budi luhur or akhlak mulia, both of which mean noble character. Finally they decided to use both terms," Mochtar told The Jakarta Post.

It has become a common practice amongst legislators to sign the attendance list in a House meeting, but then skip out to attend another meeting, or some other unrelated events. Mochtar who is also a columnist once wrote in this paper that debates in the House seem to be conducted primarily for the benefit of people seeking to outwit one another, or for filibustering while awaiting the formulation of a political solution.

"Political rivalries are intense. They sometimes interfere with the bill deliberations. It's annoying," he said.

One example pointing to political rivalry is a fact that even as the House has put the bill on the presidency as a top priority for deliberation in this ongoing House session, deliberations have not begun. The bill which was initiated by the House, has been stuck there for nearly a year and the inquiry committee set up to work on the bill has not started working as it has to wait for the 1945 Constitution to be amended in the People's Legislative Assembly (MPR) Annual Session this August.

The bill should have been completed in March 2002 but was delayed following a request from President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who chairs PDI Perjuangan, to delay the deliberation on grounds that the Cabinet was still assessing the draft.

Endin A.J. Soefihara of the United Development Party (PPP) faction said on Tuesday that some bills were difficult for all legislators to understand, which he admitted could be one reason why deliberation over the bills could take several months.

He cited, as an example, the deliberation over an influential State Finance bill, stating that it could not be finished without the completion of the amendment to the Constitution. Endin added that lack of time to deliberate over the bills had also led to the failure to produce new laws.

Under a new regulation at the House, legislators must finish their supervisory function of the government by 2 p.m., to allow them to work on their other duties, which includes deliberating over bills. He added that legislators, most of the time, ended up "overextending" their supervisory functions of the government, and therefore reduced their time to debate over the bills.