Strict penalties needed to boost House performance

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta

The House of Representatives must introduce stern penalties to its internal regulations to deter legislators from skipping meetings and deliberations of bills, governance activists said on Tuesday, as the current House session comes to a close this month.

Legislators have come under fire for their poor attendance at House meetings and deliberations, which has seriously affected their performance: 40 bills are still pending, three months ahead of the end of their terms in September.

"With their poor attendance record, legislators have been accused of betraying the aspiration of the people," Tomi A. Legowo, chairman of the Legislature Watchdog (Formappi), told The Jakarta Post.

Separately, Bambang Widjojanto of the Partnership for Governance Reform said legislators had not been accountable to the public.

"It is ironic. The institution tasked with supervising the government has failed to perform," he said.

A planned plenary meeting on Monday was canceled due to substandard attendance, and last Thursday, the House's deliberation body failed for the 16th time to meet during the current April-June session.

Tomi said the poor attendance was due to the absence of stern punishment for errant legislators.

House internal regulations declare that legislators who skip meetings three consecutive times would be considered to have violated its code of conduct.

However, no clear punishment is delineated for the violation.

Tomi said the House should introduce salary cuts and dismissals in its internal regulations as punishments for poor performance.

Deputy House speaker Tosari Widjaja has thrown his support behind moves to introduce stern measures against legislators who did not fulfill their duties accordingly, and called on political parties to replace those legislators who failed to perform.

The new law on composition of legislative bodies has restored the power of recall, which authorizes parties to replace their legislators.

House Legislation Body member Baharuddin Aritonang acknowledged that it would be impossible for lawmakers to finish deliberating the 40 pending bills within the remainder of the session.

"I think the lawmakers will focus on discussing those bills that are highly needed for the next government," he said.

Among these are the Cabinet bill, the presidential advisory board bill and the bill on loan guarantee institutions.

Meanwhile, Bambang said he hoped the new House members elected on April 5 would help improve the legislature's performance.

According to him, new legislators will comprise about 70 percent of the 550-strong House membership.

He said he had talked with the new legislators, proposing that a special caucus be formed to boost performance.

"There must be a group of legislators who will voluntarily set up a group to bring about changes. Change can't be carried out by one legislator alone," he said.