The House of Representatives will strive to improve its legislative work in 2016 to win back public trust, the newly installed House speaker has said.

'€œWe must evaluate our work performance. We must introspect. We must be more productive in the future,'€ House Speaker Ade Komarudin said in front of House members after being installed as House speaker during a plenary meeting at the House in Jakarta on Monday afternoon.

Ade was speaking of what he referred to as the '€œunproductive legislative work'€ of the House'€™s previous leadership, during which only three laws and 14 open cumulative laws were produced throughout 2015.

The three laws were the 2014 Legislative Institutions (MD3) Law, Law No.1/2015 on regional elections and Law No.2/2015 on regional administrations.

Ade further said that a string of political events throughout 2015 had sapped the energy of House members, affecting their legislative performance.

To improve its work, he said, the House will coordinate closely with the government by holding routine coordination meetings with President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo.

'€œPoor communication with the government hampered our legislative work. This is because law deliberation is not merely the work of House members but also involves the government,'€ said Ade, a veteran Golkar Party politician.   

In his inauguration remarks, Ade also conveyed his gratitude to his predecessor, Setya Novanto, who stepped down from his position on Dec.16, over an alleged ethics breach, saying that the House had many successes under the latter'€™s leadership.

Ade further said that under his leadership, the House would limit the foreign visits of its members, especially those on special committees (Pansus).

To maximize their work, he said, House members could optimize the use of information technology.

'€œPansus members should not be allowed to make frequent overseas visits anymore because they can find the information they need on the internet,'€ said Ade.

He said he made such a call based on results of internal evaluations of House members after they returned from overseas trips.

However, Ade said, the limitation on overseas visits would not apply to members of House Commission I on defense, foreign affairs and information. The House will also step up cooperation with the Foreign Ministry and the House'€™s Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Committee (BKSAP). (ebf)(+)

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