Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – A watchdog group says the 560 members of the House of Representatives are quick to put the government and state institutions under the microscope to find even the most minor mistakes, but despite continuous public outcry they blatantly ignore their most important duty: to make laws.

As shown by the findings of the Indonesian Legislative Watch (Formappi), since being installed in October 2009, the House only passed 12 out of the 92 bills that were meant to have been deliberated based on the legislators' own set target. The lawmakers' poor performance and corrupt behavior – especially in budgeting – have eroded public trust.

To make matters worse, at least three of the recently-passed laws have been reviewed by the Constitutional Court upon requests by civil society, claiming that the laws were not in line with the 1945 Constitution.

In its annual study on the House's performance, Formappi concluded that the House had failed to produce more pro-people policies. Instead, lawmakers were preoccupied with the political and financial agendas of their parties and their own private interests.

"The House's performance was already low in its first year of this term. At first we thought that was because so many lawmakers were new to the House, but we were surprised to find that it actually worsened in the second year, which led to the conclusion that their lack of 'flying hours' was not actually an issue," Formappi executive director Sebastian Salang said on Sunday.

Bills on national elections, regional elections and the Corruption Court were among the urgent priorities they were meant to address. The original draft of the Corruption Court bill threatens the death penalty for corruptors. The 2014 elections can be delayed because the House members have passed their own deadline.

Citing the study, Sebastian described lawmakers as increasingly detached from the public and abusing their power while carrying out their duties.

"While the House often abused its authority to pressure the government to accommodate its desires, lawmakers also frequently took advantage of the government's projects for their own interests," the watchdog executive said.

The latest example involved the arrest of a businesswoman and two Manpower and Transmigration Ministry officials allegedly involved in a high-profile bribery case that was suspected of being part of an effort to win House approval for projects at the ministry.

Lawmaker Eva Kusuma Sundari from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) rejected Formappi's notion that the House's legislation performance had been poor. "The fact is that we frequently passed bills into law, and all of them were on the legislation program list," she said.

Benny Kabur Harman of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party said that legislators could not be judged by the number of bills that were passed into laws over a certain period of time.

Bambang Soesatyo of the Golkar Party said he accepted Formappi's study as a "whip to boost the House's performance in the future".