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Analysis: House adds commissions to anticipate expanded cabinet
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Supreme Court Chief Justice Syarifuddin (front, seventh left) leads lawmakers-elect in taking their oaths of office for the 2024-2029 term of the House of Representatives during an inauguration ceremony on Oct. 1, 2024 at the Senayan legislative complex in Jakarta. (Antara/Dhemas Reviyanto)
T
he House of Representatives has decided to expand the number of its commissions from 11 to 13, as well as form a new agency tasked with accommodating public aspirations, in anticipation of the ministries and agencies under the incoming administration of president-elect Prabowo Subianto.
All eight political parties in the House approved the decision on Tuesday, a day after the House leaders held their first meeting since the new crop of lawmakers was installed at the beginning of this month.
To narrow their scope and improve their effectiveness, Prabowo plans to split up several existing ministries, including the Public Works and Housing Ministry, the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry, the Environment and Forestry Ministry and the Law and Human Rights Ministry. He will also reportedly split up the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry by forming a single ministry dedicated to culture.
To anticipate this restructuring expected to take place in the near future, the House updated its commissions accordingly. Notable changes include Commission III, which is to solely oversee law enforcement, with the newly formed Commission XIII to oversee law and human rights. Meanwhile, Commission XII is to oversee energy, mineral resources, the environment and investments, sectors that originally fell under commissions IV, VI and VII.
The remaining House commissions will more or less oversee the same sectors as they did previously.
Apart from the new commissions XII and XIII, the House also agreed to form a public aspirations agency composed of 19 lawmakers: three each from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Golkar Party and the Gerindra Party, and two each from the remaining five legislative factions.
The new agency will be tasked with accommodating the people’s aspirations both directly and indirectly, including gathering and reviewing public input. The agency is to communicate the results of any reviews to the House commissions and supporting bodies for a follow-up. One of the aims of creating this agency is to ensure that the legislative process incorporates meaningful public participation at every stage, and for the House to accommodate the voices of protestors that often rally outside its gates.
