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Lawmakers ask for monthly housing allowance
Members of the House of Representatives have made a new proposal demanding the payment of a monthly housing allowance in return for losing their official residences
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M
embers of the House of Representatives have made a new proposal demanding the payment of a monthly housing allowance in return for losing their official residences.
At a meeting to discuss a revision to an internal regulation on Thursday, several members of a special committee tasked with deliberating the revision proposed abolishing the lodging facility.
'Many of us prefer to stay in private residences, because there are extra costs paid for maintenance for [official] residences that are left abandoned. This puts a burden on all of us lawmakers, yet we are criticized for asking for maintenance costs,' lawmaker Fachri Hamzah of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said before the meeting.
The chairman of the special committee, Benny Kabur Harman of the Democratic Party, said that lawmakers would prefer to get a housing allowance rather than an official residence.
'We keep demanding our rights, only now the form is a different form. We will need to further discuss the amount to ensure that it will be up to an acceptable standard,' Benny said.
A large number of lawmakers have opted to abandon their official residences at a housing complex in Kalibata, South Jakarta.
Some of the lawmakers, however, allowed their relatives, personal staff or housemaids to occupy the dwellings, while others preferred to leave them empty.
In 2011, the House came under criticism when its secretariat spent around Rp 430 billion (US$36.55 million) on repairing 516 houses in the complex.
The House's secretariat spends Rp 76 billion on average per year for maintenance at the housing
complex.
The proposal to strip lawmakers of their official residences, however, raised objections from a few lawmakers who come from outside of Jakarta.
'It's easy for those who have abandoned their [official] houses to support the idea. However, the houses are very useful for us who have been living [in them]. So, I encourage this meeting to decide carefully,' said Saan Mustofa, a native of Karawang, West Java.
The meeting on Thursday concluded that more discussion was needed before the House could agree on what it would do about the housing facility.
Beside the privilege of having an official residence, the current draft of the internal regulation also includes, among other things, lawmakers' right to immunity, which would allow them to avoid prosecution for statements they make and actions they take, both inside and outside the House compound.
The list also details procedures for lawmakers to exercise their interpellation rights in order to question the government, as well as their rights for investigation, known as hak angket.
The discussion on Thursday was part of efforts to detail legislative regulations, as mandated by the controversial and newly approved Legislative Law (MD3).
Earlier on Wednesday, the meeting agreed on a mechanism that would allow five leadership posts to be voted on in a single round, requiring all of them to come from different political party factions.
