MPs leave for India amid criticism

JAKARTA: Despite criticism surrounding the questionable benefits and true intention of costly comparative study trips abroad by House of Representatives members, a group of legislators from the home affairs commission recently left for India on a five-day field trip, an NGO says.

The goals and motivation for the trip were, as usual, unclear, he said.

“This leads us to assume that the Rp 453 million trip was just a holiday package for these bureaucrats,” Fitra parliament watchdog coordinator Uchok Sky Khadafi said Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com.

However, one of the legislators, Amrun Daulay from the Democratic Party, was prevented from leaving Indonesia by the Corruption Eradication Commission after he was named suspect in a graft case involving the Social Services Ministry, which also implicated former minister Bachtiar Chamsyah, he said. — JP