Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Legislators should raise work more effectively to deliberate targeted bills and give more attention to issues in the people's interest as the House of Representatives resume a hearing session on Monday, a parliamentary watchdog warned.
The House has set a target of 93 bills for this year's legislation priority, including 23 bills from last year.
The Indonesian Parliamentary Center (IPC) said the House should cut agendas that could affect its performance such as foreign trips for comparative study tours. "The foreign trips cut into legislators' work and it only wastes a lot of time," the IPC's researchers said in its analysis made available to The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
It said that overseas study tours would no longer be relevant in the era of sophisticated technology where legislators could access information to support deliberation through the Internet. The IPC said the House should consider reducing the duration of the recess period, currently held four times per year.
The IPC listed two crucial bills as a priority that should be completed this year ahead of the much-debated 2014 general elections. The two bills are the revisions of the 2008 Legislative Elections and the 2007 General Election laws.
"The revision of the two political bills should be completed this year to build a strong democracy in preparing the 2014 election," it said.
Critics and political observers have advised the legislators to finish the laws soon if they want smooth election processes.
Major parties such as the Democratic Party, Golkar Party and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) have pushed for plans to raise the parliamentary threshold from the current 2.5 percent, as stipulated in the 2008 Legislative Election Law, to between 4 and 5 percent.
The government has promised to submit the bill on the Criminal Law Procedure Code (KUHAP) to the House for deliberation this year. "We hope to submit the [KUHAP] bill in March at the latest," Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar said in Pekanbaru as quoted by Antara on Saturday.
The IPC also called on the legislators to address current issues such as rising food prices, Indonesia overseas worker protection, tax office corruption, the Indonesian Football Association opaque management and oil and gas blocks tenders.
The House has been under fire for its poor legislative performance. Civil society groups condemned the House when it proposed the rehabilitation of legislators' housing in Kalibata, South Jakarta, the allocation of pork barrel funds for legislators and the construction of the new building to include a swimming pool and spa. House speaker Marzuki Alie on Friday insisted that the new building have a swimming pool despite criticism from the public and several legislators. He said construction would begin this year.
The IPC said the House should perform better before demanding new facilities such as the building and recruiting three more expert staffers for each legislator. "Having a new building is fine, but the House should first resolve its classic problems."