F

acing various administrative hurdles and a tighter schedule this sitting period, the House of Representatives will only aim to pass a maximum of 16 bills into law, fewer than it had planned before the start of the recess period that has just ended.

Deputy chairman of the House'€™s Legislative Body (Baleg), Firman Subagyo, said on Thursday that his office was facing various challenges in its attempt to pass the 37 priority bills under the 2015 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) by the end of this year.

Firman found that the House was struggling to find time to deliberate on the priority bills this year, especially as lawmakers were currently expected to work as fast as possible to consolidate the 2016 state budget proposal that President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo unveiled during last week'€™s plenary meeting that kicked off the current sitting period.

Firman also cited other reasons for the likely delays in the work that legislators were facing, including the inability to carry over from the previous government'€™s term bills that were ready for deliberation, the Baleg'€™s own diminished authority, increased recess periods and the insistence on carrying out work visits despite the already-tight schedule.

As a result, the Golkar Party politician predicted that the House would only be able to pass 16 priority bills in the current sitting period that is to end in late October.

Legislators so far have only passed two bills on the priority list: one on regional elections and the other on regional administrations.

'€œIn the remaining four months we have in this sitting period, if both the government and the House are serious in completing their tasks and all parties agree to support what the Baleg is doing, God willing we'€™ll be able to pass 15 or 16 bills from the total 37 bills this year,'€ Firman said.

The House has prepared to deliberate five bills initiated by the government: the branding bill, the criminal code (KUHP) revision bill, the patents bill, the non-tax state revenue (PNBP) bill and the financial system safety net (JPSK) bill, according to Firman.

Almost all of these bills have been handed over to their respective committees for deliberation, he added.

Furthermore, the House is awaiting confirmation from the President to deliberate three House-initiated bills: the financial guarantees bill, the alcohol prohibition bill and the public housing mortgage bill.

'€œStarting next Monday, we [Baleg] will be deliberating six bills that are currently undergoing the harmonization process,'€ Firman added.

'€œThis includes the publications bill, the culture bill, the construction services bill, the tobacco bill, the fishermen empowerment and protection bill and the land bill.'€

Firman also said that Baleg needed to start determining next year'€™s priority bills by the end of September before passing the state budget.

The House had previously vowed to improve its performance in the current sitting session, following a lackluster performance in the past four sessions after being elected into office last year.

Ronald Rofiandri, a researcher at the Center for Indonesian Law and Policy Studies (PSHK), said he foresaw the trouble that lawmakers would face in regard to their 37-bill objective, attributing the chaos to their lack of sound preparation.

'€œThe House'€™s commitment is questionable at best. They won'€™t be able to work properly because they had misread the situation from the very beginning '€” it'€™s hard to account for something that is poorly planned,'€ Ronald said.

Ronald believed that the onus was on the House to anticipate the hurdles by making extra preparations, especially since most of the bills on the priority list were initiated by lawmakers.

He suggested a redesign in the deliberating schedule, arguing that a dated scheme would naturally become troublesome for anyone, even if a new batch of legislators was sworn in.

'€œIf the House in the 2019 to 2023 period still insists on using the outdated scheme, they'€™d still face the same issues.'€ he said.