Jakarta – Golkar Party legislator Nudirman Munir said Friday that the House of Representatives should not be compared to people who live in shabby shanties.

"Don't get out of line and compare [the House] with the poor. The two are obviously different. Do we have to live in shabby shanties too and on flooded floors? We have to be realistic," he said at a plenary session.

He also said he was embarrassed when he had to show his room to a number of regents who had paid him a visit. "The regents came to my office and told me that his aide had a larger room than what legislators have," he said.

Nudirman also alleged that several parties' rejections of the House's planned new office building, whose construction budget was more than Rp 1 trillion (US$116 million), was merely political posturing.

The Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) disagreed with the plan, but Friday's plenary session approved the plan and its budget.