Ezra Sihite – About half of the members of the House of Representatives were absent during a plenary meeting celebrating the 67th anniversary of the legislative body on Wednesday. Only 315 out of 560 members were present during the assembly led by House speaker Marzuki Alie.

Only 98 of 148 lawmakers from the Democratic party, 69 out of 106 lawmakers from the Golkar party, 45 out of 94 lawmakers from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and 36 out of 57 from the Prosperous Justice Party were in attendance.

Though a few lawmakers continued entering after the plenary meeting, some members were seen leaving the room before Marzuki finished his speech.

The head of the House Honorary Council, M. Prakosa, said that the council would minimize absence and improve the discipline of its legislators by implementing a finger print attendance system. "We hope in the future it will make the [House] members be more orderly," Prakosa said.

He said that the finger print system would prevent a previous problem in which lawmakers signed in as present but later left the meeting. "They might have signed in, but they would leave the room," Prakosa said. "We will fix this with finger printing."

Besides a lack of discipline, lawmakers have been criticized for a string of recent sex scandals, wasting money on foreign trips and corruption. Deputy speaker Anis Matta of the Prosperous Justice Party said that the institution itself is good, while only some members are irresponsible.

"The criticism [of the House of Representatives] is actually targeted toward individuals, not institutions," Anis said. "Many seminal laws were born here that have changed the face of the nation."

Another legislator, Saan Mustopa, admitted that the image and credibility of lawmakers is declining. "The attitude and poor performance of the House of Representative has made the public dissatisfied with the institution," Saan said. "It is important for lawmakers to improve their behavior."

Advocacy director at the Center for Law and Policy Studies (PSHK) Ronald Rofiandri added that the negative perception of the House of Representatives is not baseless.

"Their performance of their three main functions [managing the budget, legislation and being a government watchdog] is still bad, plus their lack of discipline makes abusing power with regard to the budget even worse," Ronald said in a release sent to the Jakarta Globe.