Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Unfazed by the harsh public criticism that has consistently greeted each overseas trip by lawmakers, the House of Representatives Commission X is planning to send teams to Greece, Turkey and India next month to help prepare a draft law on culture and books.

Dedi "Miing" Gumelar, a member of the Commission X, which oversees education and sports affairs, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said on Wednesday that the three teams will leave for the six-day trips on March 17.

"These visits are being done in the context of preparing the Draft Law on Culture and Books," Dedi said, adding that the draft law had already been on hold for too long.

Anticipating comments that comparative research could be done online, Dedi said that culture was not something that could be studied merely through the Internet and should also be backed by empirical data from field visits.

"I will be going to Turkey. We chose Turkey because of its success in maintaining the Islamic civilization," he said.

Dedi also said the public should be wiser and not always be critical of overseas trips by lawmakers, as there was a clear legal umbrella allowing such trips.

"And I think there is no [legal] product that comes without costs," he added.

Critics have said that the overseas study trips by lawmakers were waste of public money, especially when they did not lead to concrete contributions to the process of lawmaking or when what they sought to know was readily available through the Internet.

The fact that their agenda usually included sightseeing and trip participants often included spouses only fueled harsher criticism.