Anita Rachman & Armando Siahaan, Jakarta – Having failed abjectly to meet its initial target of passing 70 bills into law this year, the House of Representatives has set itself what would seem a fairly impossible goal of 90 bills for 2011. The House has already slashed this year's legislative target to 35, but even that revised goal looks beyond its reach.
Ignatius Mulyono, chairman of the House Legislative Body, said on Tuesday that the House had passed 14 bills into law since being inaugurated in October 2009. "In the near future, we're set to pass 15 more bills, so we're sure we'll be able to have passed 30 bills by the end of this year," he said.
The remaining 40 from the initial target of 70 will be carried over to next year, he added. Those 40 bills are targeted for passage between January and July 2011. After that the House will turn its attention to passing a new batch of 50 bills, which Ignatius called the target for 2011, before the end of the year.
"Next year, each oversight commission must deliberate at least four bills," he said. "Other bodies, such as the House Legislative Body and special committees within the commissions, will work on two or three bills."
He was speaking after a plenary session in which legislators passed five bills into law. The bills were on cultural heritage, the Scout movement, protocol, horticulture and the 2011 state budget. It was the last plenary session before the House goes into recess until mid-November.
The House has faced a steady stream of criticism over the past year for the glacial pace of its work, blamed in large part on legislators' poor attendance at plenary meetings and hearings for bills under deliberation.
To address the issue, the Legislative Body vowed to set aside Wednesdays and Thursdays purely for legislation, but legislators continue to be absent.
In a written statement prepared for Tuesday's session, House Speaker Marzuki Alie said that while the House was committed to meeting its legislative target, the process was also partly the responsibility of the government, which drafts most of the bills. "I hope we will do better next year," he said. "We will catch up."
Ronald Rofiandri, director of advocacy at the Center for Indonesian Law and Policy Studies (PSHK), said it was overly ambitious to think the House could pass 50 bills in the second half of 2011.
"Even after they cut this year's target from 70 to 35, lawmakers still failed to meet the target," he said. "The legislature shouldn't be obsessed with the number of bills it can pass, but should focus on those that are of the utmost priority."
He added that a target of 30 bills in the second half of 2011 was more realistic, with each of the 11 House commissions deliberating at least two bills per year, and others coming from the Legislative Body and special committees.
He also urged the House leadership to scrap the controversial program of overseas study trips as part of the deliberation process. The results of the trips, he said, added no value to the substance of the bills, but contributed significantly to delaying their passage.
At least two of the bills passed on Tuesday – on the Scout movement and horticulture – involved legislators going on much-criticized overseas trips last month.
The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) said the trips cost about Rp 3.7 billion ($415,000). It added that the trips were unnecessary because when lawmakers took them both bills were virtually ready for passage.