JakartaPost-Sept 26, 2024
Dozens of lawmakers with family ties to incumbent politicians and public officials and hundreds of reelected incumbents of “poorly-performing” House of Representatives members may hinder the legislative body’s performance in the next five years, according to findings by the Indonesian Parliament Watch (Formappi). Growing political dynasties and a lack of opposition voices among elected lawmakers has raised concerns that there will be dysfunctional legislative oversight of the administration of president-elect Prabowo Subianto in the next five years. Next Tuesday, 580 newly elected members of the House of Representatives will be sworn into office, with familiar faces and senior politicians reclaiming more than half of the legislative seats, according to a review on the elected lawmakers’ list by Indonesian Parliament Watch (Formappi). The group looked at each politician’s profile based on data gathered by the General Elections Commission (KPU) since they registered their candidacy for the February election. But some profiles were incomplete, keeping the researchers from further analyzing the data. The review, the results of which were published on Tuesday, found that 79 lawmakers are part of political dynasties, with kinship relations with incumbent politicians and public officials. With the rising number of political families joining the House, Formappi senior researcher Lucius Karius raised concerns over potential conflicts of interest that may further hamper the legislative body from doing its job. “This opens doors for more corruption and collusion,” he said, adding that lawmakers from the same political family may pile up on the same commission and formulate regulations that would benefit their interests. Formappi’s study also showed that more than half of the elected lawmakers are incumbents. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2024/09/26/dynasties-lack-of-opposition-paint-bleak-house-picture.html.
