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or a long time the House of Representatives has been perceived (or misperceived) as a political institution whose performance runs counter to its namesake. Instead of representing the people and articulating their interests, politicians at the House have been accused of serving their party bosses at the expense of voters.

A string of corruption cases involving politicians, their frequent absence from plenary sessions and the yawning gap between pledges and the implementation of their legislative agenda have only underscored the House'€™s notoriety in the eyes of the public. Thanks to the '€œbrand image'€, whatever the House is planning or carrying out is always assumed to be doing more harm than good and, therefore, met with public opposition.

Such is happening in the House'€™s new initiative of seven development projects, which the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry estimates will cost Rp 1.6 trillion (US$114.1 million). The projects were recently proposed to the government, but President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo has not approved them, pending their feasibility studies. The President refused to inaugurate the projects when he last visited the House to submit the draft 2016 state budget last week, to the disappointment of lawmakers.

If everything goes according to the plan, the projects will equip the House with a museum and a library, a so-called Democracy Square, an access road for guests to the House building, a visitors'€™ center, a legislative study room, new rooms for House members and experts and an integrated living and working area for House members.

The leader of the House'€™s Ways and Means Committee (BURT), Roem Kono, said that the projects would be covered by the state budget between 2016 and 2019, which would allow the current House to leave a memorable legacy for whoever serves in the next terms.

Nothing seems wrong with the projects, especially because the last big project dedicated to the House, the Nusantara building, was inaugurated in 1997. The tall building has rooms for all lawmakers and their staff, and House factions as well as big rooms for hearings.

On its website, dpr.go.id, the House said the new facilities were needed to build a well-functioning legislative body. Democracy Square, for example, would allow the public to directly express their wishes to their representatives, rather than gathering at the landmark Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta only to disrupt the traffic.

The lawmakers also need more spacious rooms as they will hire more expert staff members, thus the projects are supposed to improve the quality of the House politicians.

Jokowi'€™s reservations with the projects, however, represent not only the public'€™s lingering doubt about the House'€™s accountability on the use of taxpayers'€™ money, but more importantly the House'€™s disappointing record that has made the projects a gift the politicians do not really merit.

From the first time the projects were first proposed in 2008, the public has resisted on the grounds that they do not want to pamper politicians who only remember their constituents prior to elections every five years.