In the latest blow to Indonesian lawmakers trying to shake off their reputation for incompetence, members of a House of Representatives commission visiting Australia embarrassed themselves while addressing a group of Indonesian students.
A delegate of House's Commission VIII, which oversees religious and social affairs, gave a Yahoo e-mail address as the commission's official contact during a heated dialogue with the Association of Indonesian Students in Australia (PPI Australia) in Melbourne on Saturday.
Pressed to provide the official address for students' queries, a member of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Astriana Sinaga, gave students the address komisi8@yahoo.com. Several students immediately tried to send e-mails to the address but all bounced back.
Teguh Iskanto, one of the students in the audience, blogged on Kompasiana that the lawmakers had dodged numerous questions from the floor, including one related to the budget for their comparative-study tour on poverty to Australia.
The lawmakers responded that they did not have enough time to answer such questions as they had to prepare for activities the following day, Teguh wrote.
The lawmakers had given the private e-mail address of the commission chairman, Abdul Kadir Kardin, and other members.
House commissions have come under pressure in recent months as scrutiny increased following a string of costly overseas study trips that generated little in the way of findings.
Abdul Kadir told the Jakarta Globe that the e-mail gaffe had been exaggerated. He said the commission tried its best to discuss things with the students and promised to publish the outcome of the tour of Australia and China. He said the commission had prepared several recommendations for Indonesia's poverty bill.
Ray Rangkuti, director of the Indonesian Civic Network (LIMA), said it was "funny" that while lawmakers were trying to improve their performance, they could not even offer a simple contact for communication.
Nining Indra Saleh, the House secretary general, said that like all commissions, Commssion VIII had an official address: set_komisi8@dpr.go.id.
A Democratic Party lawmaker and telematics expert, Roy Suryo, told the Jakarta Globe that the official address was only part of an intranet system and that e-mails sent to it from outside the system would bounce back.
"I told the House when I started to serve here that we should make the e-mail service accessible both inside and outside the House," he said. "It's cheap. Compared to the study's budget, it's nothing. It would probably cost Rp 5 million [$585] for the whole thing."
Priyo Budi Santoso, deputy House speaker from the Golkar Party, dismissed the gaffe as "not substantial." He said that it was understandable that lawmakers could forget an official e-mail address.