A fresh incident occurred on Thursday allegedly involving Indonesian Democractic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Herman Hery. Two Jakarta residents, Ronny Kosasih Yuliarto and his wife, reported Herman to the police for alleged assault.

The couple claimed Herman and his aides assaulted them on June 10 in a Transjakarta lane on Jl. Arteri Pondok Indah, South Jakarta. Ronny said Herman was driving a Rolls-Royce.

Herman’s lawyer, Petrus Selestinus, denied the accusation on Thursday. He claimed that Ronny had wrongly identified Herman, and that the PDI-P lawmaker would sue Ronny for defamation.

In 2016, former lawmaker Fanny “Ivan Haz” Syafriansyah was sentenced to one year and six months in prison for abusing his child’s nanny. Footage from a CCTV camera, which was used as evidence in the case, showed the United Development Party (PPP) politician shouting at his nanny: “Do you know who I am? I am a House member. I am the son of Hamzah Haz.” Ivan Haz was referring to his father, former vice president Hamzah Haz.

Called wakil rakyat, which means “people’s representatives”, some lawmakers apparently think their position means entitlement.

“Lawmakers feel that they have relative high privilege and complete power in society. This [entitlement mentality] has made the House members arrogant, thus they find it easy to abuse citizens,” Lucius Karus of the Indonesian Parliament Watch (Formappi) told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

However, Lucius said that the people could not expect political parties to offer “clean” legislative candidates in the upcoming election, because the parties would prioritize candidates with capital resources.

“Therefore, these cases should provide reflection that in future, we [the public] should be careful in casting our votes and ensure that we vote for legislators who possess integrity,” said Lucius.

Rachel Maryam once sent a letter in her capacity as a Gerindra Party lawmaker to the Indonesian Ambassador to France, requesting accommodation and facilities for her and her family while on holiday in the country. Many condemned her actions as misusing her official position for personal purposes.

Public perception of the House has remained low, with most surveys showing that the Indonesian people viewed the House as the most corrupt state institution.

In late 2017, Poltracking Indonesia’s national survey showed that public satisfaction in the House of Representatives’ performance was 34 percent. The survey also found that the institution scored the lowest among 13 surveyed institutions, including the National Police and political parties. Earlier in 2015, a similar Poltracking survey found only 23.8 percent of respondents were satisfied with the House.

This February, the House passed the amended Legislative Institutions (MD3) Law that grants the House Ethics Council (MKD) the power to press criminal charges against people for “disrespecting” the House or its lawmakers. The law also stipulates that law enforcement agencies cannot investigate House members without approval from the President in consultation with the MKD.

Not all is grim, however.

Ace Hasan Syadzily of Golkar Party’s central executive board stressed that not all 560 lawmakers at the House misused their positions. “There are only very few of them who do that [abuse power]. Not all legislative members do that,” he said, and that most lawmakers were devoted to their constituents.

Ace also said that if lawmakers were found to abuse their public office, it was the public that would look, judge and decide whether to reelect them or not.

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