The House still enable to take action against absentee members

The House still enable to take action against absentee members

A'an Suryana and Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Members of the House of Representatives (DPR) went into recess on
Thursday despite much unfinished business and unmet targets,
mainly due to a worrying lack of discipline and political
rivalry.

Closing the current three-month session that began in January,
House Deputy Speaker Sutardjo Soerjogoeritno of the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) reminded the
legislators that their poor performance had made them easy
targets for public criticism.

"This poor performance and the severe lack of discipline among
legislators may land us in hot water," Sutardjo told the House
plenary session attended by 251 of the 500 House members.

Judging by the number of bills the lawmakers have endorsed
over the past three months, the House's performance may indeed be
categorized as abysmally poor.

House Speaker Akbar Tandjung announced at the outset of the
current session on Jan. 7 that the House was determined to make
up for its lackluster performance in 2001 by completing the
deliberation of 24 bills by the end of March.

But by the time the House went into recess on Thursday, the
legislators had deliberated and endorsed only four bills,
including the money-laundering bill that was approved last Monday
by merely 49 of the House's 500 lawmakers.

The legislators' failure to complete the 24 bills has raised
doubts that the House will be able to meet its target to approve
80 bills in 2002.

Politicking is one the many reasons behind the legislators'
failure to deliberate more bills. Ever since Akbar, chairman of
Golkar, the second biggest faction in the House, was implicated
in a Rp 54.6 billion financial scandal involving the State
Logistics Agency (Bulog), the legislators have been so busy
debating whether or not they should set up an inquiry to probe
Akbar that they have had little time to deliberate the bills.

Political observer Chusnul Mar'iyah of the University of
Indonesia said the House's poor performance was the result of a
rivalry among political parties who are seeking the presidency in
the 2004 general election,

The situation has been exacerbated by a severe lack of
discipline among House members. More often than not, the chairmen
of House plenary meetings has to delay opening sessions due to
poor attendance. Most legislators fail to show up for meetings
without giving any explanation.

"The laziness of the legislators is terrible," Sutardjo told
reporters after addressing Thursday's meeting.

Sutardjo said House leaders had sent letters to the respective
faction leaders in the DPR, urging them to punish absentee
legislators from their own parties.

The poor attendance of lawmakers at meetings has prompted some
to propose the setting up of a disciplinary committee that would
evaluate the performance of each legislator and punish them if
deemed necessary.

Hamid Awaluddin of the Hasanuddin University in Makassar said
the establishment of the committee and the enforcement of
penalties would help the House restore its tarnished image.

"Producing legislations is the main job of the House," Hamid
told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Hamid added that House leaders should publicly announce the
identities of legislators who had poor attendance records for
plenary meetings.

Others have gone as far as calling for the reintroduction of
the recall mechanism, a method used by former dictator Soeharto
to get rid of lawmakers critical of his policies.

So far, however, the legislators have not reached any
agreement on the issue.

On Wednesday, after a tug-of-war, House leaders agreed to
delay deciding on setting punishment criteria for absentee
legislators.

"We are allowing each faction to determine the penalties for
their own legislators who are absent from House meetings. House
leaders will jointly discuss the issue after the recess," said
House Deputy Speaker A.M. Fatwa said after a meeting with the
leaders of 10 factions in the House.

According to Sutardjo, the recall mechanism should be
reinstated to punish absentee legislators.

"A disciplinary committee is not enough as it would only warn
absentee legislators. It would not have a deterrent function," he
said.

Another House leader, Sutradara Gintings, however, rejected
the suggestion, saying that the recall mechanism would revive the
oppressive practices of the New Order regime, which had
undermined the freedom of expression.