Slow-Moving House

KOMPAS/WISNU WIDIANTORO

Visitors look at photographs of the “House of Representatives (DPR) in Color” exhibition on Wednesday (29/8/2018) in the House’s lobby in the Senayan legislative complex in Jakarta. The exhibition was held to mark the House’s 73rd anniversary and depicted its lawmakers in action at meetings and other events.

The House of Representatives (DPR) commemorated its 73rd anniversary on Aug. 29. It is a ripe old age. However, it has been becoming more difficult for the House to pass its targeted legislation.

Such was the public image obtained in a Kompas poll conducted in late August and published on Monday (3/9/2018) to commemorate the House’s anniversary. This is despite the fact that legislating, or making, deliberating and enacting laws, is the House’s primary function in addition to monitoring and budgeting. A majority of the poll’s respondents felt that many lawmakers of the 2014-2019 term were not focused in their duties.

Under Article 69, Point (2) of Law No. 17/2014 on Legislative Bodies, the House performs its three functions within the framework of representing the people and supporting the government’s foreign policy efforts in line with prevailing laws. As the state institution authorized to create laws, legislating is the House’s main function.

However, take a look at the House’s legislation performance this term. This year, the House has passed only four out of the 50 bills in the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) into law. Between 2015 and 2018, the House approved only passed 26 out of the 193 bills in the Prolegnas into law, or 21.03 percent.

This legislation performance is no better than that of the previous term. The Center for Election and Political Party Studies at the University of Indonesia’s School of Social and Political Sciences reported in 2015 that the House planned to deliberate 352 bills of the 2009-2014 Prolegnas; however, it passed only 104 laws (29.54 percent). The National Development Planning Agency’s (Bappenas) data showed that the House passed 31.38 percent of the Prolegnas bills into law in 1999-2004 and 55.52 percent (186 out of 335) of the bills in 2004-2009.

It is hard for us to expect that the House would approve all Prolegnas bills through 2019 during its current term. At least 511 of the 560 legislators of the 2014-2019 House term are seeking reelection next year. They will also be required to campaign for the presidential candidate their party supports. The image of the current House will not differ much from that of the previous term. Only 35.7 percent of respondents in the August poll thought the House had a more positive image. Compare this to the House’s positive public opinion rating in previous Kompas polls: 26.6 percent in the April 2009 poll, 13.2 percent in September 2014), 17.7 percent in November 2015 and 27.1 percent in July 2017.

This poor public image of the House, which many hope to uphold democracy in this country and protect the people’s welfare, is directly related to the lawmakers’ behavior. Since 2008, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has arrested 132 members of the House and regional legislative councils (DPRD) in corruption cases, much more than any other state institution.

Hopes of establishing a better legislature in the coming term are fading, as Elections Supervisory Ageny (Bawaslu) in several regions are allowing former corruption convicts to seek legislative seats. Now, it is up to the public to choose better representatives and help the House improve and become more aligned to public expectations. Sovereignty lies in the hands of the people.