Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Anita Rachman, Jakarta – Apparently alarmed by the public's heavy criticism of their tendency to skip meetings at the House of Representatives, lawmakers turned up in droves to attend Monday's plenary session.

Unlike the last plenary, which saw a dismal attendance by 284 out of the total of 560 House members, 407 were present on Monday, House Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung said.

The public was angered when a series of plenary sessions were postponed because the House could not muster enough lawmakers to reach a quorum.

The agenda on Monday included passing a clemency law, accepting the draft budget and discussing ties between the House and the Regional Representatives Council (DPD).

Later, lawmakers rejected a number of measures, suggested by experts and the public, to curb absenteeism in the House.

One option was requiring members to use fingerprint clock-in devices as the basis for docking their pay if they were chronically absent.

Ethics Council Chairman Gayus Lumbuun said such measures would not be effective in forcing lawmakers to attend meetings. Most are rich, he said, making penalties pointless. "Many would not mind and would still avoid attending meetings.

Cutting the salary, as well as a fingerprint system, is only suitable for company workers, not high-ranking officials such as lawmakers," Gayus said.

"Such programs will not educate the lawmakers. It's better for us to stick with the current regulations but give them more attention in their implementation," he added.

"Of course, the public should be more active in reporting any violations to the Ethics Council. Without that, we cannot investigate," he said.

Golkar Party secretary general Idrus Marham agreed that neither financial sanctions nor clock-in systems would be effective.

"It won't affect them. What does cutting lawmakers' salaries mean? It is just like [threatening] to take candy away from children," he said.

Idrus said lawmakers must simply have commitment and integrity, two elements that could only be fixed by the parties. They should monitor their members' performance more closely, he said.

Mahfudz Siddiq, chairman of House Commission I from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said it should be mandatory for all House commissions to note lawmakers' monthly attendance and announce it to the public. He said this would scare lawmakers more than salary cuts.

Meanwhile, Golkar's Harry Azhar Azis said that the performance of lawmakers should not be evaluated solely on their attendance level but also on their achievements. Fulfilling their targets and holding the government accountable is more important than attendance, he said.

"If the evaluation was based on attendance, then most lawmakers would be very happy because it's an easy task to do," Harry said.