Ezra Sihite – Indonesian lawmakers defended last month's highly criticized trip to Berlin on Monday, stating that visiting lawmakers were in Germany to attend meetings about defense contracts and that politicians used their own money to bring family members along.

Eleven lawmakers, including members of the House of Representatives Commission I, were in Germany from April 22 to 24 when, during a visit with Indonesian students studying abroad, they were ridiculed and asked how much tax payer money was spent on the trip.

The students accused the lawmakers of wasting Rp 3.1 billion ($337,900) on the trip and likened them to wide-eyed "country bumpkins" visiting Jakarta for the first time on a video posted on YouTube.

But Hayono Isman, head of the House Commission I, said that the criticism was unfair on Monday, explaining that lawmakers only spent Rp 1 billion on the trip and had clear reasons for being in Germany. House politicians met with executives of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) to discuss Indonesia's controversial purchase of Leopard tanks.

Lawmakers also met with the spokesman of Germany's ruling Christian Democratic Union (to discuss democracy in Indonesia) and the Indonesian ambassador in Germany (to discuss building an Indonesian Embassy in Berlin).

The Berlin embassy is currently in a rented building next to a prison, Hayono said. "The Commission I supports the Indonesian embassy's plan to build its own office in Berlin, given that the current location is too near a women's prison and is not representative of our mission in Berlin," Hayono said.

Among the eleven lawmakers in Berlin were: Nurhayati Ali Assegaf and Vena Melinda from the Democratic Party, Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq and Salim Mengga from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Muchamad Ruslan from the Golkar Party and Heri Akhmadi from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). (BeritaSatu/JG)