Strict penalties needed to boost House performance
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.