Anita Rachman, Jakarta – Firman Soebagyo, the deputy chairman of House Commission IV on agriculture, said on Friday that lawmakers had submitted two reports on agriculture study trips to New Zealand and the Netherlands.
The reports, however, were sparse. The account of the New Zealand trip was explained in seven pages, and the Netherlands report a mere two pages. Both contained little more than overviews on the countries' achievements and regulations on agriculture and horticulture.
The report on New Zealand contained information on who the legislators met in the country and what they learned, while the report on the Netherlands only contained six points in total, with five of those being explained with a single paragraph each. The report said the legislators met sources in three Dutch institutions and visited a flowers auction.
Firman said the report had taught him that "the Netherlands is the second-biggest agricultural exporter" in the world.
He also claimed that as a commission leader, he was able to glean new information from the reports and that he was "certain" that the visits would help the deliberation of the Horticulture Bill that has been prioritized by the commission.
"It is different when you get the data from the Internet compared to when you get it by yourself," he said. "But we couldn't meet as many people as [we wanted] because we are the guests. We are stealing their time, so they decide, not us."
Firman said the reports will be discussed in a meeting with the government to deliberate the proposed bill.
Eryanto Nugraha, executive director of the Center for Indonesian Law and Policy (PSHK), said a good report cannot be judged from the page numbers alone, "but remembering how many billions they spend, I don't think that is appropriate."
According to the Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), the House was allocated Rp 170.3 billion ($19 million) in the current budget for overseas trips, although House Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung said the figure was only Rp 107 billion.
Each legislator receives Rp 20 million to Rp 25 million ($2,200 to $2,800) per week for study trips, and an additional Rp 20 million "representation fee" just for participating, the forum said.
Rully Chairul Azwar, deputy chairman of Commission X, overseeing education, who went on a tour of South Africa to learn about the Scout movement there, said his team's report was not ready to be published.
"It was only for four days, and our agenda was so full... We can explore more when we go directly to the field," Rully said. He said the commission chose South Africa because the Scouts were founded there.
Again, if Rully had bothered to conduct an Internet search on the Scout movement he would have found that the Scouts originated in the UK, although its founder Robert Baden-Powell was inspired by events that occurred in South Africa while he was serving with the British Army during the Second Boer War.
Members of Commission III, overseeing legal affairs, who went to the Netherlands in July to study a system that does not use clemency, presented a report containing an overview and materials from the Netherlands Ministry of Justice, including its structure and copies of a ministry presentation.