Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Young revelers weren't the only ones struggling to drag themselves out of bed the morning after the late-night World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands, with legislators coming in for criticism after apparently sleeping through their alarm clocks.
Many lawmakers who made it to the House of Representatives on Monday morning nodded off or rubbed their bleary eyes, while others did not turn up at all for the first plenary session following a monthlong recess.
As the clock struck 10:30 a.m., a half hour after the House plenary session was scheduled to open, House Speaker Marzuki Alie, from the Democratic Party, was sitting with House Deputy Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso, from Golkar, staring at a half-empty chamber
The session had to be postponed with just 260 of the 560 lawmakers in their seats. A visibly angry Marzuki said each of the House factions should punish those members who failed to attend Monday's plenary session.
Sutan Bhatoegana, a Democrat, suggested the meeting be postponed to give lawmakers more time to catch up on their sleep and struggle into work after a late night of watching the World Cup final.
Finally, enough lawmakers turned up to meet the quorum requirement. In the end, just 283 lawmakers signed in for the session. This included 78 of the 148 Democrats; 48 out of 106 Golkar lawmakers; and 46 out of 94 Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmakers.
It was a completely different story on Sunday night, when almost 1,000 people showed up at the House to watch the final into the early hours of Monday morning. The standing-room-only crowd was there in response to an invite sent out by Marzuki.
Marzuki was the only lawmaker who attended the event, along with some high-ranking officials from the House's Secretariat General, including Nining Indra Saleh, the secretary general. They were joined by about 100 journalists who were also invited to watch the broadcast.
The attendees were divided into two groups – those wearing Spanish red, and those decked out in Dutch orange.
Meanwhile, in the wake of recently released quarterly performance reports showing that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's cabinet members have failed to live up to expectations, a live television broadcast on Monday showed a string of ministers nodding off during a briefing at the State Palace.
The ministers seen catching 40 winks included Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Agung Laksono, State Minister of Youth and Sports Affairs Andi Mallarangeng, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto and State Enterprises Minister Mustafa Abubakar.
The performance reports showed a quarter of the cabinet had received "red marks."
The chief of the Presidential Working Unit for Development Supervision and Control, Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, said earlier that those evaluated were ministers and heads of state institutions.