TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
House lists 33 priority bills for 2021. But can it really get them done?
Law experts and observers are looking askance at the Indonesian legislature as it announces its 33 priority bills for the year, most of which are holdovers from last year, notwithstanding the legislature’s poor performance that lawmakers blamed on "the pandemic".
Change Size
A few dozen House of Representatives lawmakers attend a plenary session on March 8, 2021 at the Senayan legislative complex in Jakarta. The 2019-2024 legislature has a total of 575 members. (Antara/Galih Pradipta)
T
span style="background-color:#FFFFFF;">The House of Representatives has only about seven months this year to deliberate dozens of priority bills, including the long-awaited bills on data protection and sexual violence, as well as a relatively new proposed bill on developing the nation's new capital city in Kalimantan.
The House has listed a total of 33 priority bills in the 2021 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas), which was approved in a plenary session on Tuesday.
The legislature had failed to finalize the list during its previous session that ended early last month, due to objections over a proposed bill to split and move the 2024 simultaneous regional elections to 2022 and 2023. Lawmakers agreed to remove the proposed regional elections bill from the priority list in favor of the government, which insisted on reevaluating the elections schedule only after the 2024 polls had taken place.
More than half of the priority bills have been carried over from last year, including those on the new capital city, renewable energy, alcohol prohibition, indigenous communities and the Papua special autonomy (Otsus).
Meanwhile, the personal data protection bill was initially proposed by the government seven years ago and its deliberation has been delayed several times since, the latest occasion in late 2020. The sexual violence bill has resurfaced on this year’s list after it was dropped last July amid public outcry and continuing calls for its urgent passage.
Read also: Ministry urges House to pass sexual violence bill immediately
Of the 33 bills, 10 were proposed by the government, 21 by the House and two by the Regional Legislative Council (DPD).
