Review will be impartial: House speaker
JAKARTA (JP): House Speaker Wahono promised Saturday to reject any pressure, even from the President, intended to influence the team reviewing the House of Representatives' internal rules.
Wahono, whose term will end in September, said the House would put independence above everything else in managing its internal affairs.
"Revision of the internal rules is strictly the House of Representatives' internal affairs," he said after a meeting with the Armed Forces Pensioners Association.
Wahono was responding to concerns that the internal rules would be changed to suit the bureaucracy at the expense of the House's independence.
The decision to review the House's internal rules and proceedings came after the Indonesian Democratic Party's (PDI) dismal performance in last month's general election.
The PDI won 11 seats, down from 56 in the 1992 election. Eleven seats are not enough for the PDI to carry out properly all its legislative tasks in the House under the internal rules.
A special committee to review the rules was set up last week by the House.
PDI and the other minority party, the United Development Party (PPP), have long demanded changes in the House's internal rules which they said were too restrictive and stifled democracy. The government-backed Golkar, which has a strong majority in the House, has opposed their demands.
At the center of the debate is the number of commissions in the House. With 11 commissions, the PDI will only be able to field one representative in each commission. This means that should its representative fail to turn up, a commission, under current House rules, could not hold a meeting, let alone make a decision.
The Moslem-based PPP obtained 89 seats and Golkar 325 seats in the 500-strong House. The remaining 75 are reserved for the Armed Forces.
Wahono said the review had long been planned to meet rising demands to empower the House, which has often been called a "rubber stamp institution".
The review committee has until July 22 to say whether the number of House commissions should be reduced and make recommendations on any other rule changes.
PPP deputy chairwoman Aisyah Aminy said the number of commissions should be reduced from 11 to 10 to allow the PDI to have a representative in each.
"The state budget commission should be scrapped and matters related to the state budget should be discussed by all commissions," she said.
Aisyah said that by abolishing the State Budget commission the House would not need to make major changes in its internal rules.
"The PDI would have one representative in each commission, while the remaining one (member) would be assigned as a House speaker," she explained.
Some legislators have suggested merging the House commissions or reducing the number of commissions, but others have proposed doing away with the power of House factions by allowing decisions to be made by head counts.
House leaders hope that any new rules will be enacted before legislators end their five-year term in September.
Aisyah said the committee should draft additional articles for the internal rules, which would enable a commission to make a decision whenever a PDI legislator failed to turn up.
She also supported a proposal to improve the House's performance by employing experts.
She said that in the Philippines parliament each legislator had six expert staff, while each U.S. congressman had eleven expert staff. (imn/05)