Anita Rachman, Jakarta – Legislators have seemingly turned a deaf ear to the recent furor over their poor attendance at House of Representatives hearings by failing spectacularly to show up at Thursday's plenary session.
Only 393 of the 560 lawmakers turned up, according to the House Secretariat, with not a single party fielding its full roster. Two of the four deputy speakers also failed to show.
Deputy Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso, from the Golkar Party, said the turnout was very disappointing, given Speaker Marzuki Alie's promise on Monday that the chamber would try to improve attendance.
"We in the House leadership have repeatedly asked the legislators to attend plenary sessions," Priyo said on Thursday. "I'm saddened to see such a poor turnout."
Thirty-three legislators from the Democratic Party, the House's largest, failed to appear, while 28 from Golkar, the second-biggest, were missing.
Meanwhile, 39 legislators from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), including Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung, were not present. Some of the smaller parties had more than 10 members absent.
"We'll talk to the party leaders to try and instill some discipline in their legislators," Priyo said.
The House previously vowed to pass 70 pieces of priority legislation this year, but has since slashed that target to 17. So far it has passed only seven, all amendments to existing laws, with not one new bill being passed into law.
Habitual absentee Abdul Kadir Karding, from the National Awakening Party (PKB), said he "can't understand why so many people skipped [Thursday's] plenary session." Abdul himself has missed four plenary sessions in the previous three months.
House Ethics Council Deputy Chairman Nudirman Munir said the council had logged all the attendance data from Thursday's session and sent warning letters to the parties about the absentees.
He also said the council had filed requests with the House Secretariat to subpoena several legislators implicated in disciplinary problems, but declined to name the individuals in question.
"We plan to call for questioning next Thursday those legislators whose data we have verified," Nudirman said. "We're very serious about instilling some discipline around here. We're going to scrutinize attendance records and even make spot inspections if need be."
The council previously identified two of the worst absentees as Jeffrie Geovanie of Golkar and Ratu Munawaroh of the National Mandate Party (PAN), both of whom could face dismissal after skipping six straight plenary sessions.