The "5D" satirical allusion usually used to label legislators is no longer appropriate now. It is obsolete. Members of the House of Representatives (DPR) can no longer be taunted as people who only come, sit, listen, keep quiet and get money (datang, duduk, dengar, diam and duit—5D in Indonesian). Some of them cannot fulfill the first "4D" because they are nearly always absent from Senayan, a reference to the area where the DPR building is located. Perhaps they are psychics of sorts who can hear without having to be physically present somewhere. Sometimes their presence is just virtual reality: their names are listed on the attendance sheet but their physical presence is "mysteriously invisible."
Obviously, these legislators are no genies like those reportedly present at the East Parking Ground when the NU held its grand mass rally several years ago. They are ordinary people; that's why none of them has ever rejected the last "D"—money. About this money business, reports have been made loud and clear recently that 155 members of the House and of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) are yet to report their wealth to the Audit Commission on State Officials' Wealth.
If something is to be regretted, it is not about their numbers, which is small enough compared with the total number of DPR and MPR members—500 people and 1,000 people respectively—or very small indeed in comparison with some 27,000 government officials yet to report their wealth to the commission.
What matters here is commitment and exemplary role models. The idea to announce this list of wealth came from MPR Stipulation No. XI, issued in 1998. This MPR stipulation was later confirmed as Law No. 28 of 1999 on the Running of a State Free from Corruption. Who made these two rules of the games? Nobody but members of the MPR and DPR, (some of whom) are yet to submit their list of wealth. So, if a lawmaker violates the law he makes himself, why must other people obey the law? Since when has our society been divided into a class "that makes the laws" and another that "implements the laws"?
The reason put forward by the people's representatives is causing deep concern. Some say the forms supplied by the commission are too complicated, not nggenah. The result is confusion. Some inquire whether washing machines and goats must be put into the column of wealth. It is true that confusion may arise, especially if a legislator wonders whether a goat is a fixed or movable asset because it roams into other people's estates every day. Let's say that there is indeed confusion but does it really take a year to establish into which column the goat must be entered?
Then, it is not clear what sanction the leaders of the DPR or MPR will impose on members failing to submit their list of wealth by the end of August 2002. Some suggest that the House set up a Council of Honor but others reject this idea on the grounds that the Code of Conduct of the House, ratified in October 2001, can be used as a foundation on which sanctions will be based. Or, use another guideline: the Criminal Code. Those violating the regulations in their own institutions may be subject to four months' imprisonment.
We suggest a more effective method. At the deadline set for the forms to be submitted—August 31, 2002—leaders of the DPR and MPR can announce the names of "disobedient" members, whatever their reasons may be. The mass media will publish these names widely in the hope that the public will know who have "rejected" efforts to eradicate corruption in Indonesia, one of the world's five most corrupt countries. At the same time, political parties that these "disobedient" legislators belong to should also impose a sanction, for example, by announcing to the public that their names will be excluded from the list of House member candidates in the upcoming 2004 General Election.
Corruption is way beyond the tolerable limit in this country. Therefore, it is now time that unconventional methods be used with maximum force. The first step will be to rid Senayan of lawmakers who have trampled on the laws they themselves have made.
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