Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – Heavily criticized last year for widely missing their bill target, legislators did little to instill confidence Monday – the first day of this year's hearing period – as only 290 of the 560 House members showed up.
Sebastian Salang of the Indonesian Parliamentary Watchdog (Formappi) said he doubted that there would be much productive legislation this year, given increasing political tension among political parties at the House and the fact that there were more sensitive bills to be discussed this year.
"Somehow, I greatly doubt that the House will be able to finish all 70 bills as promised this year," he told The Jakarta Post.
Marred by political tension and high-profile cases including the unresolved Bank Century bailout controversy, the House passed 16 out of its target of 70 bills in 2010.
The laws that were passed last year included a revision to the 2008 Law on Political Parties and the newly deliberated 2010 Law on Public Housing and Settlements.
At the end of the 2010 legislation period last month, the House leadership pledged to finish 70 bills this year, including those that they had failed to pass last year.
Bills that were said to be top priority included the Yogyakarta special status bill and the migrant workers bill. "I expect that we will be able to maximize our efforts so that we can meet this year's target," House Speaker Marzuki Alie said in his keynote speech at the plenary meeting on Monday.
He said the House also planned to deliberate political package bills, which comprised the general elections organizer bill, the general elections for the House of Representatives (DPR), Regional Representatives Council (DPD) and Regional Legislative Councils (DPRD) bill and the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) bills.
"Especially for the general elections organizer bill, I am optimistic that we will be able to finish the deliberations in April," Marzuki said.
Commenting on these political package bills, he said it was the joint secretariat, a coalition of political parties comprising President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's supporters, that would play the most significant role.
"In reality, the joint secretary has managed to secure 75 percent of the votes at the House. Thus if the coalition is rock solid then they will face no difficulties in passing the bills into laws," he said.
However, many perceive the joint secretariat to be on the brink of fragmentation, as some legislators from center parties have threatened to join the main opposition party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
Some appear to have become disillusioned by the dominance of the coalition's two largest parties, the Democratic Party and the Golkar Party.
The Prosperous Justice Party's (PKS) top cadres, for example, were not able to hide their disappointment over rumors that President Yudhoyono planned to replace controversial Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring.
Legislators from the National Awakening Party (PKB) differed in opinion on setting the terms of the parliamentary threshold, which determines how many votes a party needs to enter the House, with Golkar and the Democratic Party, which called for the parliamentary threshold to be increased to 4 or 5 percent.
PKB legislator Ida Fauziyah said the parliamentary threshold should be set at a more conservative figure of 2.5. Smaller parties would have a higher chance of winning House seats with a lower threshold.
Sebastian said a strong coalition to back the ruling Democratic Party at the House was key to more productive legislation.
"If [President] SBY wants to keep the coalition solid then he should cast out those who oppose him. It is quite simple," he said.