Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The failure of the House of Representatives (DPR) to pass 24 bills into law during the current session deprives the public of legislation badly needed to overhaul the country's economic and political scenes.
It will also further delay deliberations on other bills scheduled for the next session as the House has embarked on an ambitious campaign to enact 80 bills this year.
Of the 24 bills slated to be endorsed by the end of the current session on March 28, those on money laundering and establishing a commission for the eradication of corruption are the most crucial as foreign donors have tied much-needed financial assistance to their enactment.
Failure to do so, considered likely, may prompt the Consultative Group on Indonesia and the Asian Development Bank to delay the disbursement of financial assistance totaling US$3.74 billion. The move would severely affect the country's budget deficit which is estimated to reach 2.5 percent of Indonesia's gross domestic product in the 2002 budget.
Donor countries grouped in the Paris Club have also put the enactment of the money laundering bill as a prerequisite for rescheduling Indonesia's sovereign debts, The $5 billion debt, both sovereign and interest, is due in 2002 and 2003.
The parties are scheduled to meet in Paris in April to decide whether or not they would reschedule the debts. A failure to secure a deal may force Indonesia to spend much of its budget on servicing sovereign debts which now stand at $138 billion, half of which belongs to the government.
Other bills urgently needed included reforms on political parties, the election system and the composition of the House and the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR). A delay in the deliberation of those laws will affect the preparations for the 2004 general elections.
In comparison, some 67 bills were passed during former president B.J. Habibie's 16-month rule ending Sept. 1999. Many laws were later revised because of poor deliberation.
The legislators' inferior performance, which is caused mainly by a severe lack of discipline and political rivalry, has sparked calls for non-performing lawmakers to be fired.
Political analyst Arbi Sanit and coordinator of Parliament Watch Denny J.A. recommended that the legislative body should apply the stick-and-carrot approach. "There must be a penalty for lazy legislators that stall legislation activities," Denny told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Arbi of the University of Indonesia concurred, saying that there must be an internal mechanism in the House to sack lazy legislators that slow legislative activities. Arbi and Denny said there was no authoritative regulation that enabled either the House or the political party to dismiss legislators – no matter how lazy they were.
An internal regulation of the House only stipulates that the House may establish an ad hoc honorary council to review any legislators that commit violations of the Code of Ethics.
Meanwhile, Golkar legislator Agun Gunandjar Sudarsa of House Commission II for law and domestic affairs admitted on Thursday that the House's poor performance in the legislation was particularly caused by its internal regulations.
"How can we reach a quorum if some factions have less than 15 members?" Agun asked, alluding to a ruling allowing 10 legislators to set up a faction.He said that a faction in the House should have at least 30 members to deal with daily jobs in nine commissions and four legislative bodies effectively.