Jakarta – Most political parties have failed to encourage their cadres to reach out to their constituencies and people, a political observer said following news about several legislators who snubbed and even snapped at several Indonesian migrant workers in Dubai.

Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) political analyst Burhanuddin Muhtadi said that political parties had failed to serve their basic function of acting in the public interest. "They forgot that these migrant workers are their people too," he said Saturday.

While waiting for a delayed flight from Dubai to Jakarta, kompas.com recorded the testimonies of three Indonesian passengers who had volunteered to help 150 confused and stranded Indonesian workers.

The three volunteers said they, along with several other Indonesian passengers, spontaneously offered assistance because they saw many Indonesian migrant workers who were also waiting could not understand English or Arabic had difficulties proceeding through the transit, which forced hundreds of passengers to stay overnight in an airport hotel.

The volunteers said not a single member from the House of Representatives' Commission V group traveling from Russia to Indonesia booked on the same delayed flight offered to help the migrant workers. One legislator even snapped at one of the workers and another told one of the volunteers to quiet the workers down because they were "embarrassing Indonesia with their noise".

The House's record showed that the traveling legislators went to Russia to study low-cost apartments in Moscow. Politicians from the Democratic Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), whose fellow politicians were among the group, defended their peers, saying that their party cadres would have helped if the workers had asked and if they had enough time.

Democratic Party member Ignatius Mulyono said that his party, as well as other parties, had provided a lesson for party cadres on dealing with voters and constituents.

He said that the issue was technical and it depended on the creativity and empathy of each person to deal with such a complicated situation in Dubai. He was sure that his colleagues would have helped the confused workers if they had more time, he added.

Ganjar Pranowo of the PDI-P said that any aspirations of constituents would be heard by political parties if "it was carried out well". He also said his party had an education program for party cadres and the program was adequate. (ipa)