Soetardjo complains about colleagues

Soetardjo complains about colleagues

JAKARTA: A parliamentary leader expressed his disappointment over the attitude of present parliamentary members here on Friday saying that they are now more interested in their group's or party's interest rather than the people's.

"Their education is indeed higher than past members' but it is more difficult now to find statesmen among them," Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR) Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno said in a discussion forum.

Referring to a case to show the parliament members' poor attitude, Soetardjo said that once a plenary session was only attended by 43 out of the House's 500 members while the session had been scheduled to make an important decision.

The head of the Forum to Coordinate People's Concern about Parliament, Tommy Legowo, said the rate of DPR members' presence at sessions was below 50 percent.

Soetardjo admitted that the tasks and authority of the DPR members had increased and he referred to their task of formulating draft laws which formerly used to be done mostly by the government and their task of conducting fit and proper tests on public officials.

"This has expanded the tasks of DPR members and is making them very busy," he said. -- Antara