Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Parliament watchdog, Formappi, has criticized the national legislation program set by the government and the House of Representatives, saying it lacks clear objectives that can produce quality laws.
According to Formappi executive director Sebastian Salang, the lawmakers need to sit together and talk about ways to improve the legislative program and law-making process.
Sebastian said that at each session, lawmakers promise to complete deliberation of particular bills, then fail to meet legislation targets because of conflicting interests among themselves.
"The government and the House annually set a target to pass around 70 bills. But in reality, only around 10-15 percent are endorsed into law. This is not just a result of conflicting interests between the government and House, but also differing interests among lawmakers," Sebastian told The Jakarta Post.
He cited that only eight, just over 10 percent, of the 79 prioritized bills had passed into law in the 2011-2012 legislative period that ended in July. To make it worse, several long-awaited bills, including draft laws on bureaucratic reform and local elections, were on hold.
Meanwhile, numerous laws, including the law on legislative elections, have come before the Constitutional Court for judicial review, due to their multitudinous flaws.
Sebastian said that while the legislative body was a political institution it should consolidate views from all fractions and stay out of short-term political wrangling. Synergy with the executive body in policy making is essential.
"The national legislation program must be based on wide public interests; the executive's strategic plans and programs; aimed at significant progress in all sectors and benefit the majority people," he added.
House Speaker Marzuki Alie admitted recently to the President, ministers and foreign diplomats that the House's underperformance was caused by sharply differing political stands between the government and the House, and among House fractions.
Separately, Gandjar Pranowo, deputy chairman of Commission II on home affairs, said the absence of any political concord within the House had obstructed the legislation program and hindered his commission's efforts on several important bills.
Nurul Arifin of the Golkar Party suggested the House cut the annual legislation target by 50 percent to make it more realistic.
Eva Kusuma Sundari of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said her commission would continue its efforts to reform the judicial system and support the effective eradication of corruption.