Indah Setiawati, Jakarta – There is no way the City Council will be able to legislate 38 bylaws this year, given the councilors' notorious work ethic and lack of experience, says the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency, or Fitra.
"The council will never reach the target because the councilors are lazy," Fitra investigation and advocacy head Ucok Sky Khadafi said Sunday in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post.
"They prefer traveling out of the city for so-called 'comparative studies' rather than deliberating bills."
The 38 bills scheduled for passage this year comprise 23 revisions and 15 new ones. During the 2004-2009 period, the City Council deliberated and revised all of 59 bills over five years.
Councilors for the 2009-2014 period have listed 101 bills to be passed by the end of their tenure.
Ucok said many bylaws, once passed, remained "paper tigers" because the city administration failed to enact them, often citing a lack of funding from the city budget. In addition, the city consistently fails to educate the public about newly passed bylaws, he said.
Ucok also pointed out the physical preparation ahead of the enactment of the regulation. "After a bylaw is passed, the city usually doesn't support it with the proper infrastructure," he said.
He cited the non-smoking bylaw, saying the city did not build smoking rooms in public places to encourage the implementation of the bylaw.
Even as councilors spout their ambition target for legislation, critics point out such a large number will cost a lot to deliberate. Ucok said according to Fitra's observation, there was no standard budget allocation for passing a new bylaw or revising an existing one.
"For instance, the budget just to draft the zoning bill was Rp 1.1 billion [US$115,800], and to draft the women and children protection bill was Rp 294.3 million," he said.
He added the budget to publish a peer-reviewed academic paper – a prerequisite for drafting a bill – varied among city agencies.
Ucok said the academic paper on regional tax at the city's tax office cost Rp 500 million, much more than the paper on the organization management of miscellaneous institutions, which cost Rp 131.5 million.
He said the spending did not stop there, as there were also allocations for two activities: Finalizing the draft bill, and educating the public. Fitra data shows finalizing the bill on regional development cost the city Rp 800 million.
The key bills and bylaws up for legislation or revision this year include the 2007 bylaw on poultry control, which is scheduled to be enacted this year; the 2009 bylaw on regional health, and the bill for the 2030 spatial plan, which has sparked controversy for not including key sectors of the public in its discussion.
Jakarta Regional Legislation Board (Balegda) chairman and City Council Deputy Speaker Triwisaksana was confident the council could meet its target.
He played down criticism that the council had set itself too big a target, saying the House of Representatives had a more ambitious legislation target of 50 bills. "Unlike in the previous [City Council's] period, we will discuss two to three bills together during plenary meetings," he said.
Triwisaksana added the legislation board would form a special team to process a bill made according to the commissions. This method, he said, would ensure efficiency.