For whom is legislation made? For the people represented by the House of Representatives and the President? Or for a handful of people who hold power through capital?
By
BIVITRI SUSANTI
·5 minutes read
DOKUMENTASI PRIBADI BIVITRI SUSANTI
Bivitri Susanti
The ends and beginnings of years are synonymous with reflection and resolution, likewise with legislation. What is usually discussed at the House of Representatives in Senayan is what laws have been deliberated in the past year and what laws will be deliberated in the coming year. This list is referred to as the annual priority list, derived from the national legislation program, which is valid for the 5-year term of office for the House of Representatives and the president.
The problem, however, is that this reflection only considers the number of laws that were passed and not the quality of these laws. In 2021, for example, only eight of the 33 targeted laws were passed. In 2020, marked by the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, only three of the targeted 37 laws were passed by the House. In 2019, 14 laws out of the 55 targeted were passed. Of the eight laws passed in 2021, three were the ratification of international agreements, the contents of which had already been discussed between the Indonesian government and other countries and were not up for debate. Meanwhile, the other two laws concern the routine budgeting mechanism.
More alarmingly, there seems to be no connection between the people’s needs and the laws produced by the House and government. For one, the issue of sexual violence – which has been considered an emergency issue for many years – has not urged the House to hasten its draft for the sexual violence bill. The same can be seen with the domestic worker protection bill, which has been on hold in the House for 18 years.
In addition, at a time when the people need stronger commitments to eradicate corruption, the house and government have paralyzed the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) by revising the KPK Law in 2019. Moreover, at a time when the people’s welfare, social justice and environmental sustainability should be safeguarded, the Job Creation Law was passed to facilitate investment.
It is as though there is no relation between the people’s representatives and the people they represent. In fact, the power the House holds is not inherited, like the priyayi was in the past. The House’s power is obtained through elections, which produces the power of speech (Dhakidae, 2000), the power to make decisions for the benefit of the people because they are elected by the people. However, what ends up happening is that the people are left as soon as the power of speech is obtained.
But it is also unfair to place all the blame on the House. The 1945 Constitution states that every law requires the approval of the House and the President. The President is responsible for half of every law that is produced. Furthermore, Indonesia’s presidential system, with many political parties, can lead to an overly strong president and a weak legislature. The large number of political parties, combined with the existence of a presidential nomination threshold, has pushed parties backing the president to seek out coalitions. Without a coalition, the executive will not be able to produce the policies it wants because if it stands alone in a multi-party system, the supporting party will certainly be a minority in the House.
This is one of the aspects detailed in The Perils of Presidentialism by Juan Linz (1990; 1994). It is dangerous because there is a tendency for a majority power to emerge when the president succeeds in forming a large coalition. As a result, the checks and balances are almost non-existent because most parties have already been recruited as coalition members. As a result, the executive can carry out its plans almost without any meaningful control.
This is what is happening. If we look at the laws that have been passed by the House and the President recently, almost all of them were deliberated without heated debate. This is great if the legislation passed is in
line with the needs of the people, but therein lies the issue; with the paradigm of developmentalism pushed by the current executive, the people are not benefitting. The only beneficiaries are the oligarchs, namely a handful of financiers and politicians because the legislation is made to benefit them.
Look at the jobs law, drafted in just nine months, which is a very short time for a law that is almost 1,200 pages long and changes 78 other laws. The contents of the jobs law are very beneficial to business players, but they also harm workers and damage the environment.
Later, the Constitutional Court declared that the process of the jobs law was conditionally unconstitutional, meaning that the law and all its derivative regulations cannot be enforced. Even so, the government insisted on implementing it.
Thus, it is appropriate to ask, for whom is legislation made? For the people represented by the House of Representatives and the President? Or for a handful of people who hold power through capital?
BIVITRI SUSANTI, Constitutional law expert from the Jentera School of Law
