Top legislators back recall mechanism

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Amien Rais expressed his support for a proposal to revive the recall mechanism at the House of Representatives, whereby recalcitrant legislators can be expelled from the House.

"The recall mechanism is useful to punish House members who are negligent, and often tend to put their own interests above the country's," Amien said at his office.

Giving an example, Amien said that the mechanism could target legislators who never attended House sessions but still received their monthly salaries and other allowances.

Legislator absenteeism has indeed been a cause for concern recently.

The proposal came to light at a meeting between the House of Representatives (DPR) and the National Election Commission (KPU) last week here.

Amien, however, warned that the recall mechanism must not be manipulated by the respective political parties to expel vocal party members.

"Such manipulation was part of the New Order system, and that will no longer be tolerated in this reform era," said Amien, who is also the chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN).

During the New Order regime, the recall mechanism was often used by political parties to expel legislators who differed with party leaders.

This rule was scrapped in 1999, since it was considered undemocratic.

Legislator Slamet Effendy Yusuf shared Amien's view, saying that the revival of the recall mechanism should be supported.

"In the absence of the recall mechanism, it seems that political parties have been unable to deal with errant legislators. Therefore, the mechanism would be useful to maintain good performance," said Slamet, a legislator from Golkar Party.

To avoid authoritarianism by the party, a creative effort was sought. Both Amien and Slamet suggested that the DPR could form a neutral ethics council, in a bid to create a standard assessment to judge whether the respective legislators were negligent in their duties.

"Should the council determine that a legislator is negligent, it could report to the party. Then it would be up to the party to decide whether to expel the negligent legislator," said Slamet, a deputy chairman of Golkar, on Monday.

A stronger view about the revival of the recall mechanism was aired on Monday by Sutjipto, the secretary-general of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

Sutjipto said the revival of the recall mechanism must eventually be adopted since it was a consequence of the country's proportional election system.