The 2004-2009 House of Representatives term will end this month. So far, according to House Speaker Agung Laksono's speech during House anniversary celebrations on Aug. 28, the House is predicted to be able to pass 174 bills into law by the end of their term. However, that number is still far below their target of 284 bills based on the 2004 National Legislative Program. How does the legislative body watchdog judge the performance of the current House? The Jakarta Post's Hans David spoke to the Indonesian Parliamentary Watchdog (Formappi) executive director Sebastian Salang to probe into the evaluation of the House's performance. The following are the excerpts of that interview.

Question: What is your evaluation of the performance of the current House of Representatives in comparison to the House in the previous term?

Answer: The performance of the current House is worse than the one from the previous term. The signs are clear. First, we have to look at the amount of legislation produced. The current House produced less legislation than that of the previous term.

Second, even if the House managed to pass a number of bills into law, those bills were not part of the 2004 National Legislative Program. This shows that the current House did not prioritize the right issues while making legislation.

Finally, most of the laws produced are also flawed in terms of quality. There has been a record number of judicial reviews submitted to the Constitutional Court on the laws produced by the current House.

In your opinion, how should the House improve its performance?

There are many things that need to be improved. One of the most substantial issues is the formulation and the total number of House caucuses. Right now, there are too many caucuses (the current House has 10 caucuses), and based on the Legislative Body Composition Law, things will not get any better in the next House, because the law allows for any party that managed to pass the parliamentary threshold to form a caucus.

That means we could see nine factions at the next House. I believe the number of caucuses needs to be reduced. Three caucuses is enough. With three caucuses, the House would have more commissions, and with more commissions, each commission would have fewer jobs to do and the meetings with the government could be faster and more efficient.

In some countries, a legislative body member can be recalled directly by his or her constituents. Do you think we need such a mechanism to show House members that their responsibilities are to their constituents, not to their political parties?

Actually, we have an indirect mechanism to do that. Constituents can report their representatives to the Board of Honors at the House, and the board will investigate the matter. I do believe that constituents should be able to hold legislators directly accountable.

It is a public secret that legislators often serve as cash cows for their parties. Lawmakers are obliged to donate up to 50 percent of their income, which often forces them to look for "side jobs". How can this problem be solved?

Legislators are indeed the main source of income for political parties. I believe that legislators must solve this issue internally with their respective parties and not use it as a justification for corruption.

What do you think the outcome of bills currently being deliberated at the House will be?

There is a tendency for House members to quickly deliberate bills into law at the end of their term so the public cannot properly monitor the deliberation process.

So, let's not appreciate any efforts by the current House to deliberate bills into law at the very end of its term. I believe the bills will be ticking time bombs if they are passed into law, and there is a possibility the laws are only instruments that will serve the interests of a few powerful people.

What is your expectation for the next House, considering the fact that it will be filled with celebrities, comedians, news anchors and debuting politicians?

Some 73 percent of legislators in the next House are new faces. In terms of performance, I am feeling pessimistic, because they lack experience. However, I have high hopes they will improve in terms of behavior and politeness.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party will dominate the next House with its massive coalition bloc. Do you think the Democratic Party will have the guts to be critical of Yudhoyono?

To hope the Democratic Party will become critical of Yudhoyono is pointless. The life and death of the party depends on him. So, our only hope for a proper monitoring is critical independent individuals in the next House combined with the power of the media and civil society.