TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The House of Representatives (DPR) should respect the Constitutional Court’s (MK) decision that allows the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) to participate in proposing and discussing new draft bills. The role of DPD in discussing draft bills related to regional government must not be undermined.
The DPD's move in applying for a judicial review against the amendment of Law No. 17/2014 on the People's Representative Assembly, the House of Representatives, the Regional Representative Council, and the Regional House of Representatives (MD3 Law) to the Constitutional Court on August 2014. The Law was considered to have failed in accommodating the DPD's interest in draft bill discussion process.
The DPD asserted that the 2014 MD3 Law was nowhere better compared to the initial MD3 Law in 2009, which had also been reviewed by MK in 2012. Back then MK mandated the DPR to include the DPD in draft bill discussion process. However, the DPR decided to ignore the decision and exclude the DPD from the 2014 MD3 Law, prompting the DPD's judicial review application.
And now, MK has made the right decision by partly granting the DPD's demand, "specifically demands related to putting the DPD on the same position with the DPR in its functions and duties in accordance with Article 22D of the 1945 Constitution. The decision has restored the check and balances system in the parliament. As one of the chambers in the parliament has gained back its authority to balance the other chamber, which is the DPR.
The DPD's legislative functions and relevancy in discussing draft bills has long been trimmed down by the DPR. The DPD was unable to carry out its constitutional duties because the institution's participation in plenary sessions was often obstructed. For example, there was a time when a heated debate took place during a work meeting between Commission II of the DPR and the government, which was attended by the Chief of Commission I of the DPD. During the meeting, DPR's deputy spokesperson did not allow DPD official to express any opinion related to the issues discussed in the meeting.
Such incident must never occur in the future. We should remember that the DPD was formed to strengthen the bond between regions and strengthening democracy in addition to providing check and balances between government institutions.DPD officials are regional agents that are tasked with relaying aspirations that will be discussed in political processes in the parliament. Recent MK decision enforces the DPD's equality with DPR members in terms of discussing draft bills related to regional interests.
The DPD has proved itself to be rather productive in producing draft bills related to its regional domain. However, many of these draft bills were not included in the National Legislative Program initiated by the DPR because of the DPD's undermined position. On the contrary, the DPR itself failed to prove its productivity.
Therefore, the DPR must immediately include the DPD in discussing draft bills related to regional interests. Ignoring the MK’s decision can be considered as harming law enforcement efforts and damaging state administrative relationship. (*)
