Criticism of the House of Representatives Commission VIII is mounting on social media Web sites after a gaffe during a discussion with the Association of Indonesian Students in Australia (PPI Australia) in Canberra on Saturday.
Sixteen lawmakers from the commission which oversees religious and social affairs were in Australian between April 27 and May to complete a comparative study for the poverty bill.
The meeting on Saturday, recorded and uploaded on video-sharing site Youtube, showed the lawmakers' seemingly unpreparedness when one of the students asked them the commission's email address.
"We, Commission VIII, is open to ideas from everyone," Ahmad Zainudin a lawmaker from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said when a student interjected, asking for the email address. "We have given you pak Karding's [commission head Abdul Kadir Karding] email address and I can give you my email too," Ahmad said.
But the student insisted. "Yes, but what's the commission's email?," the student asked again.
Amid the confusion, a lawmaker identified in the video as Astriana Sinaga from PKS said the email address was komisi8@yahoo.com. The answer triggered laughter and chuckles from the audience.
The video, uploaded by ppiaLATROBE, had been viewed 64,391 times until Thursday at 12 a.m.
In an open letter directed to Karding, PPI Australia said their evaluation showed the lawmakers were only effective on four out of six days they were on the junket and that Australia was not the right place to study poverty because its level of prosperity is different to Indonesia.
"We, PPI Australia considered the study junket by the House Commission VIII to Australia was not effective and a waste of government money," the association's chairman Mochamad Subhan Zein said in the letter.
The meeting with Australian officials, PPI Australia said, was conducted at the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra. The lawmakers did not meet with the community or visit any social services. "The lawmakers didn't have to come here, communication could have been done through the Internet or teleconference," Zein said.
Abdul Kadir Karding thanked the students for their evaluation, but he said a number of things had to be straightened out. "We had a well coordinated trip with the Australian Embassy. The schedule had been set and we met with the Australian Ambassador Greg Moriarty in Jakarta," Karding told news portal Okezone.com.
So, what's the commission's official email? "The official email of the House Commission VIII is set_komisi8@dpr.go.id," he said.
Meanwhile, the director of Indonesian Civic Network (LIMA) Ray Rangkuti said the incident was "funny."
"In reality, the fact that Commission VIII doesn't have an email has created big stories about improving the House of Representatives quality. The creativity of the PPI Australia must be appraised," Ray said.
"They opened the public's eye that in the middle of discussions about improving the quality of House members, they still can't deal with some very easy and elementary things."