Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – A political watchdog has criticized legislators for taking unnecessary overseas trips and threatening the progress of a crucial bill they are working on.
A coalition of civil society groups slammed the House of Representatives on Monday for allowing 20 of its members working on the much anticipated bill on legislative bodies to undertake the so-called study trips to the US and Germany.
Ronald Rofiandri of the Study Center for Indonesian Policies and Laws (PSHK), said legislators should have focused on completing deliberations on the bill before entering another recess in March.
"We regret this decision made by the special committee overseeing the bill. The scheduling of the study trips was badly coordinated, and considering the House has limited standing session time as it is, traveling should not have been a priority," Ronald said.
"Basically, legislators will not learned anything new from these study trips. Most of what they will discuss has already been debated many times in the past, particularly since the amendment of the Constitution in the year 2000," he said.
Ronald said the trips were a waste of state money and the deliberation of the bill could have been completed without legislators having to conduct their trips.
Ganjar Pranowo, head of the bill's special committee and senior politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) confirmed 10 members of the House's Commission II overseeing home affairs, regional autonomy and the general elections Commission took part in a trip to the United States, while 10 others visited Germany.
He said both groups, which left for their destinations on the weekend, would spend between four and five days in the two countries.
"We have of course used the results of previous comparative studies conducted by other House divisions, but there are several technical things we need to examine in these two model countries.
The relationship between the Senate and the House, for example, is one area of difference we wish to learn more about, as is the workings of the central and local parliaments and the mechanisms of sessions," said Ganjar, who remained in Indonesia.
The trips had allegedly been scheduled for some time, but because of year-end budgetary issues, they could not be carried out any earlier.
Ganjar refused to comment on the cost of the trips, claiming to not known any of the details. Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) has estimated the 20 legislators will spend in excess of hundreds of thousands of US dollars for the trips.
The bill on the structure and composition of legislative bodies is the only proposal still being deliberated out of four submitted to the House in early 2007. The other bills on political parties, legislative elections and presidential elections have all been passed into laws.
Ganjar said lawmakers divided the bill's articles into five different sections for deliberation, they being on the People's Consultative Assembly, the House of Representatives, the Regional Representatives Council, local legislative councils and the House secretariat general. He said legislators had only discussed two of the five sections.