Camelia Pasandaran – With lawmakers likely to pass two new pieces of legislation today, critics have called for a moratorium, arguing that new laws could end up being struck down by the Constitutional Court because they are poorly written.

After managing to pass only 63 percent of bills put forward since taking office in 2004, members of the House of Representatives have shifted into overdrive to push through a number of bills before the outgoing legislators' terms end on Sept. 30.

Today they are expected to endorse a contentious film bill that industry activists have said supports stricter censorship and is undemocratic, and an environmental protection and management bill.

But Irman Putra Sidin, a law expert, warned on Monday that laws pushed through just to meet the Sept. 30 deadline could be flawed. "If the laws are not yet ready to be passed, it's better to delay them rather than endorse them with a number of weaknesses," he said.

The controversy surrounding the House's surge of energy in its last few weeks is set only grow, as lawmakers also plan to endorse the controversial state secrecy bill before the end of the month, having recently passed a law on legislative bodies.

"If the process of legislation gets too long due to interest bargaining, what is likely to happen is laws get swept through [at the end of the legislative term]. This has a potential for weakness, but commonly happens," Putra said. "While a slow process doesn't mean perfect laws, sweeping laws through has a bigger potential to create flawed laws."

Analysts have long criticized the House's record for passing laws – some of which have even had contradictory articles in them – just to protect the individual interests of political parties with legislative seats. This has led to a number of laws, or articles, being struck down as unconstitutional, including parts of the legislative and presidential election laws earlier this year.

Siti Zuhro, a political researcher from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said both of the election laws were passed hurriedly, and she accused lawmakers of failing to properly debate bills or consult the public.

"Actually, no laws are deliberated with sufficient time to get the best results," she said. "Because of the poor deliberation process, many laws end up in the Constitutional Court for judicial review."

Siti noted that the new law on legislative bodies was challenged in the Constitutional Court just days after its passage, and said lawmakers should withdraw controversial bills until the next legislative session begins on Oct. 1.

"However, current [House] members place their own interests first," she said. "Last year, they all focused on autonomy laws after requests from several regions. Meanwhile, important laws such as ones on bureaucratic reform and public service have been left neglected."

Angelina Sondakh, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party, rejected claims that legislation was being pushed through simply because of the deadline.

"We will pass bills when they are ready to be passed," she said. "As for the film bill, we discussed it for years before endorsing it. There is actually strong public demand for us to pass bills. "There is no such thing as a perfect law, but we need laws that bring better conditions."