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House to seek outside help for bill deliberations
With only seven months remaining to complete the deliberation of this yearâs 37 priority bills, the House of Representatives has unveiled a plan to hire legal experts and academics to help lawmakers in the initial stage of the lawmaking process
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ith only seven months remaining to complete the deliberation of this year's 37 priority bills, the House of Representatives has unveiled a plan to hire legal experts and academics to help lawmakers in the initial stage of the lawmaking process.
Speaking after a joint evaluation meeting on Monday with leaders of the House's 11 commissions regarding the House's lawmaking progress, House's Legislation Body (Baleg) deputy chairman Firman Soebagyo said most of the commissions had been unable to submit the drafts of the priority bills mainly due to the absence of academic drafts.
'During the meeting, leaders of the commissions reported that there were many academic drafts that were not ready. Some completed drafts also still need to be reviewed by the House's deputy secretary-general before they are ready,' Firman told The Jakarta Post, Monday.
Firman claimed that the limited number of legal experts at the House's secretariat general had complicated the preparation of the academic drafts.
'If this doesn't work well, then we need to cooperate with institutions or universities that have competence in preparing academic drafts. We can hire them under a contract-based system, with Baleg or other House bodies supervising their work,' he said.
According to the Constitution, bills can be proposed by the House, President and the Regional Representatives Council (DPD). However, only the House and President have the joint authority to pass bills into law.
Article 103 the House's Code of Conduct, meanwhile, stipulates that every bill must be submitted along with an academic draft ' which has, among other things, a definition of problems, theoretical analysis, analysis of existing regulations and the substance of the proposed bill.
Bills on the state budget, the adoption of a government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) as law, as well as the revocation of a law or a Perppu, are not required to have an academic draft.
In February, four months after the inauguration of the current batch of lawmakers, Baleg announced a list of 159 bills in the House's 2015-2019 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas), with 37 of them sitting on a priority list, which lawmakers and the government are aiming to pass into law by December.
After seven months in office, the House, however, has only managed to pass three laws, as a result of prolonged infighting triggered by the formation of the ruling and opposition coalitions following last year's presidential election.
None of the new laws, including the 2015 Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Law, are on the priority list.
House deputy speaker Agus Hermanto of the Democratic Party attributed the House's unsatisfactory legislative performance to lawmakers' poor attendance at commission hearings and plenary meetings.
'We have called all House factions to work on it [lawmakers' discipline]. We, for example, have requested them to arrange their [internal] programs to match the House's meeting schedules to avoid overlapping agendas,' he said.
Of the 37 priority bills, the House is in charge of preparing 27 bills, including those on radio and television and the prohibition of alcoholic beverages, while the government is handling the remaining 10 bills, including the Criminal Code bill and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission bill.
Instead of focusing on the preparation of the priority bills, the House leadership, which is dominated by politicians from the opposition Red-and-White Coalition, recently announced a plan to amend Law No. 8/2015 on local elections and Law No. 2/2011 on political parties in order to allow the Golkar Party and the United Development Party (PPP), which have been dealing with prolonged leadership disputes, to participate in the regional head elections set to take place concurrently in December.
Ronald Rofiandri from the Jakarta-based Center of Indonesian Legal and Politics Studies (PSHK) also considered the law revision proposal dubious, saying that the amendment would potentially turn the upcoming local elections into a legal battle given the absence of legal chairmanship of Golkar and the PPP.
'When it is believed that the issuance of a new law will spark conflicts, then the principle of effectiveness [in lawmaking] could be put into question,' he said.
