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