JAKARTA: A new study has found that the majority of Indonesians are dissatisfied with the current crop of legislators in the House of Representatives (DPR), whose five-year term is coming to an end this month.
The study, carried out by the Research and Development Department of Kompas (Litbang Kompas), found that 66.2 percent of Indonesians did not feel that their aspirations were served by their representatives in the DPR. Furthermore, 63.7 percent said they were dissatisfied by the way members of the DPR carried out their main functions.
“Close to two-thirds said they were dissatisfied with the work done by DPR in terms of their legislative function, their monitoring of the government, and the creation of state budgets,” Litbang Kompas researcher Susanti Agustina said, as quoted by Kompas today.
Litbang Kompas interviewed 529 respondents from Sept. 18-19 for the study.
The study also found that, during the current legislators’ 2014-2019 period, DPR has consistently passed fewer than half of the bills it set out to pass in the National Legislative Program (Prolegnas) each year.
That the DPR is generally slow in drafting up new laws is certainly nothing new in Indonesia, so their recent push to rapidly pass wildly unpopular bills, such as a bill that activists say would cripple the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and another bill that would criminalize sex out of wedlock and insulting the president (which has been delayed — for now), has made them even less popular of late. Many have accused lawmakers of being motivated solely based on their own self-interests in passing these bills before their term ends.
Legislators in the DPR are coming to the end of their terms on September 30, with the next batch of legislators set to be sworn in on October 1 for the term lasting from 2019-2024.
(Agencies)
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