100 legislators never speak up: House

Almost 100 legislators at the House of Representatives have never spoken up or stated their opinions on issues of national importance since their installment in 2009, House Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung said Tuesday.

“Around 17 percent of House members have never spoken up,” Pramono said Tuesday, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com. Approximately 560 legislators currently serving at the House, representing nine factions.

Pramono, a politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), was speaking at a studium generale hosted by Diponegoro University's Communication school in Semarang, Central Java.

No matter how good they are, if a politician never speaks to the press, their skills will be useless, Pramono said. Politics, after all, is about speaking, he added.

He also said he had noticed that several legislators were very close to the press before they were installed, but since then had never spoken their minds on issues relating to public interest or to resolve problems faced by the nation.

Most of these legislators, he added, were those who used to be soap opera artists. He mentioned several legislators, Primus Yustisio and Eko Patrio, both from the National Mandate Party (PAN), and Venna Melinda from the Democratic Party.

Pram said these legislators had spoken to the press, but most of the time they hadn’t spoken about national issues. Instead, they talked about the prices of shoes and bags, he said.

On the other hand, there were legislators who were continually under the media spotlight, he said, pointing out Ruhut Sitompul, an eccentric politician from the Democratic Party.

Pram said the mass media had a strategic position in this era of convergence, which meant that no matter what a man says it will mean nothing unless it is exposed by the media.

“If you cannot use the press, don't become a politician,” he said.