Analysts are warning that the quality of laws passed under pressure, by lawmakers, in this file photo, will result in those laws being worse than useless.
Lawmakers facing intense public criticism over their truancy have set a new target to pass 16 bills by the end of the year, but analysts warn that the quality of the resulting laws could be so bad that they would be worse than useless.
The timing of the warning gave it an extra edge, with the House of Representatives today going into another recess, which is set to last two weeks.
Lawmakers facing intense public criticism over their truancy have set a new target to pass 16 bills by the end of the year, but analysts warn that the quality of the resulting laws could be so bad that they would be worse than useless.
The timing of the warning gave it an extra edge, with the House of Representatives today going into another recess, which is set to last two weeks.
“It’s impossible to get both quantity and quality at the same time,” said Burhanuddin Muhtadi, a political researcher from the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI).
He added that the House usually aimed to pass 350 to 450 bills over the course of each five-year working period.
“It would be better if the House just lowered its targeted legislation for each year and made new priorities,” he said.
At the start of the year, the House announced it would pass 70 bills into law this year, which the House Legislation Body subsequently revised down to 17 priority areas at the end of May.
They include the much-awaited bill on protocol and bills for legal aid, cultural heritage, horticulture and currency.
The handful of bills passed since the current crop of legislators took office in October last year included a revision to the 2002 Clemency Law, deemed urgent in light of overflowing requests, and annually recurring ones such as the state budget.
On Friday, House Speaker Marzuki Alie vowed to complete deliberations over 16 bills.
Ahmad Yani, a United Development Party (PPP) lawmaker and member of the House Legislation Body, was even more optimistic, saying on Sunday that it was still possible to meet the original target of passing 70 bills, despite effectively only having about four months left to do so.
“Each [of the 11] commissions is currently trying to complete three or four bills,” he said.
Ahmad said the policy set by Marzuki to dedicate Wednesdays and Thursdays to clearing legislation had so far been working effectively. “And some working committees also work over the weekends,” he added.
But the LSI’s Burhanuddin warned that if lawmakers rushed the deliberation process just to meet the target, the quality of legislation would likely suffer, making the laws prone to challenges in the Constitutional Court. Inviting outside experts such as NGOs and academics to help advise on laws could help improve their quality, he added.
Eryanto Nugroho, executive director for the Center for Law and Policy Studies (PSHK), said its study had found the ideal legislative target for the House was 20 to 30 bills a year.
“The House must screen any proposed bill before finally deciding on 20 to 30 bills — very urgent ones — to be discussed,” he said.
Andreas Hugo Pareira, a former lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said three main areas needed to be improved: legislators’ competence, their discipline and the mechanisms of the legislature itself.
“Without improvements in these areas, I’m very pessimistic that the target — hundreds of bills within five years — can ever be met,” he said.
“The quality of the laws would not be good and they would just be susceptible to judicial reviews in the future.”
Ahmad, however, rejected suggestions the target be slashed. “Those critics have no insight whatsoever into the realities of the legislative process,” he said.
