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Facebook, Twitter seen as threats at House
Smart phones, now ubiquitous gadgets in schools, offices and malls, have been declared by legislature leaders to be a direct threat to legislation at the House of Representatives
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mart phones, now ubiquitous gadgets in schools, offices and malls, have been declared by legislature leaders to be a direct threat to legislation at the House of Representatives.
Deputy House speaker Pramono Anung said Friday that rampant use of smart phones among lawmakers to browse the Internet or update their Facebook or Twitter accounts was distracting their focus during hearings.
Pramono, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that while cellular phones and smart phones should in theory help legislators communicate and stay up to date with current affairs, the gadgets were actually preventing them from focusing on the agenda during meetings.
"I propose that we do not only ban cell phones during meetings, but also BBs *BlackBerrys* that are used to send messages and update Twitter accounts," he said.
The House has come under fire for not having passed any bills into law this year. Its poor productivity has been compounded by squabbling over short-term political interests.
Some legislators prefer to leave a meeting to make or receive phone calls, while others choose to stay seated but tune out and instead sign into popular social and messaging applications or simply browse the Internet on their mobile devices.
The PDI-P will submit its official request to ban cell phones during hearings. "Basically, we do not want to see legislators get distracted by cell phones," chairman of the PDI-P faction at the House, Tjahjo Kumolo, said.
He urged House leaders to formalize the policy as soon as possible.
Fellow deputy House speaker Priyo Budi Santoso from Golkar Party welcomed the PDI-P's request.
"Actually, the ban was originally discussed when the previous House formulated the code of ethics. However, for some reasons, the proposal was not included in the code of ethics," he said.
Not everyone, apparently, agrees with the proposed ban of cell phones.
Akbar Faisal of the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) said it would be better for the House to only prohibit talking on cell phones during hearings, but tolerate text messaging. "Text messages and Blackberry messenger should be exempted," he said.
However, some journalists have rejected the proposal to ban cell phones, saying that they depend on text messages and chat features to communicate with legislators in House sessions and even to prompt legislators to ask questions during hearings or questioning sessions.
"During the House inquiry into Bank Century bailout, I often texted questions to legislators so that they could convey them to *Finance Minister* Sri Mulyani and *Vice President* Boediono," a journalist said.
