M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – After one batch of lawmakers was spotted on a shopping spree in the Middle East, a second group of legislators is set to leave for Latin America later this week.
Twenty-six members of the House of Representatives Legislation Body (Baleg) are slated to leave the country on Aug. 6 for Argentina and Brazil for what they are calling a comparative study of lawmaking processes.
The Deputy Chairwoman of Baleg, Nursjahbani Katjasungkana, said the group had an obligation to broaden its knowledge of lawmaking. "The House standing order mandates Baleg to take overseas trips to study the legislative processes of other countries," she told The Jakarta Post.
Nursjahbani said Baleg members would meet with members of parliament, law and justice ministers, governors, mayors and academics from local universities in the two countries to learn how legislation has affected economic development there.
She said Baleg members initially hoped to visit Russia, Sweden or Switzerland but later found out that the parliaments in those countries were in recess.
"I later came up with the idea of visiting Latin American countries because they have been successful in staving off Western influence. Maybe we can copy something from them," said Nursjahbani, referring to recent nationalization drives in Bolivia, Venezuela and Argentina, among other countries. Each Baleg member will receive US$270 per day to cover living expenses.
The trip to Latin American countries was planned when the public outcry over a sojourn by another group of lawmakers had barely subsided. Eleven members of House Commission I on foreign affairs are now in Iran, Abu Dhabi and Dubai for what is considered an official visit.
Media Indonesia daily reported that the lawmakers, who are traveling with their spouses, did not all agree on the nature of the trip. Some said the journey was part of their minor haj pilgrimage to Mecca.
Legislator Bomer Pasaribu of the Golkar Party, who will soon depart on the trip to Argentina and Brazil, defended his colleagues' penchant for overseas travel. He said such trips broadened lawmakers' horizons.
"That is something that you won't get from the Internet. Besides, when I was still a manpower minister I knew officials from the lower level at my office often made trips abroad, it's nothing unusual," he told the Post.
House watchdogs, however, begged to differ. Sebastian Salang, the secretary-general of the Forum of Citizens Concerned about the Indonesian Legislature, said lawmakers were breaking their promise not to pursue personal gain.
"After public outcry over a trip to Egypt earlier this year, the House leadership said it would ban lawmakers from traveling abroad, but the present trip proves otherwise," Sebastian told the Post.
In the aftermath of that trip, a lawmaker of the National Mandate Party (PAN), Djoko Edy Sutjipto Abdurrahman, was given the axe by his political faction for defying a party mandate to shun overseas travel. "It is obvious that even a dismissal is not enough to dissuade House members from traveling abroad," Sebastian said.