Challenges and Projections for DPR 4.0
The inauguration of 580 members of the House of Representatives for the 2024-2029 period on October 1, 2024 marked the beginning of the sixth term of the legislative body since the reformation. The constitutional challenges associated with the DPR's constitutional functions of legislation, supervision, and budgeting will become more complex in the future.
The last five years of the 2019-2024 parliamentary term should serve as important lessons for improvement in the next five years. The relationship model between the DPR and the government over the past five years has contributed to parliamentary performance. In practice, the support of the majority of political parties for the government does not make the parliamentary function worthwhile.
In terms of legislative performance, the 2019-2024 DPR was able to complete 225. The details are 48 laws from the Prolegnas list and 117 laws from the open cumulative bill. When compared to the DPR in the previous period, this achievement increased in quantitative terms. The DPR in the 2014-2019 period could only complete 91 laws with details of 55 cumulative laws and 36 laws from the Prolegnas list (Jawa Pos, October 1, 2024).
However, it should be underlined that this quantitative increase in achievements, when examined in more detail, was due to a large contribution from the number of laws related to districts / cities (regions). For example, in the last session on September 30, the DPR passed 79 bills on regencies/municipalities (regions).
In addition, the phenomenon of fast track legislation (House of Lords, 15th Report of Season, 2009), in the form of fast-track discussion of laws, and midnight regulation (Jerry Brito & Veronique De Rugy, 2009), which is the abundance of laws passed before the end of the parliamentary term that occurred in recent times, also colored the last parliamentary period.
The peak was on August 20, when the DPR planned to amend the Pilkada Law, which contradicted the substance of the Constitutional Court (MK) decision. The public also protested massively in various regions.
Parliament, as one of the branches of state power in the trias politica, is required to improve and get closer to the aspirations of constituents. Therefore, it requires strategy, commitment, and innovation in exercising authority based on the rule of law and public aspirations.
Challenges for the new DPR
The political composition of the DPR for the 2024-2029 period is predicted to be similar to the parliamentary formation five years ago. In fact, ahead of the transfer of power to the new government, there are signs that all political parties in parliament (and even non-parliamentary parties) will join the new government in the form of a conversion of cabinet seat allocations. If this happens, there will be practically no political parties outside the government.
This condition will directly or indirectly affect the performance of the parliament. The portrait of parliamentary performance over the past five years is an example of parliamentary performance not optimally activating its functions. This is inseparable from the political configuration in the relationship between the legislature and the executive.
In fact, in a presidential system, the relationship between the legislature and the executive is equal, which requires the practice of cheks and balances between institutions. At this point, it becomes a challenge for the new DPR to optimally activate the functions inherent in parliament.
Activating the functions of the DPR amidst the abundance of political party support for the government is not an easy task. It requires statesmanship on the part of both the executive and the legislature. Control from the parliament must be read as a manifestation of a balancing act when carrying out its constitutional functions. Control is not just waton suloyo (just different), but is based on public aspirations and interests.
The spirit of kawal imbang can be activated in each of the DPR's functions such as legislation, supervision, and budget discussions. In addition to controlling executive policies to keep them on track, Parliament's balanced guard must be organically orchestrated through DPR's institutions. Among others, through the board organs (AKD) and factions.
The new DPR should abandon the relaso pattern that has prevailed over the past five years. They must be able to sort out interests that correlate with fundamental principles that are directly related to the lives of many people and interests that are short-term political affairs.
DPR 4.0
In the midst of parliamentary challenges, there are opportunities that can be utilized. That is the optimization of digital platforms as a medium to activate parliamentary functions. Digital optimization in parliamentary work is an important part of the birth of DPR 4.0, which is the transformation of traditional patterns with the use of digital as both a tool and a paradigm.
Recently, the House of Representatives has become more attractive with the optimization of digital platforms that are easily accessible to the public. Live streaming of meetings through DPR's official social media channels helps the public follow the debate process. This way, the public knows who is saying what and who is acting in what way.
Even so, it must be realized that the digital paradigm does not necessarily replace the political paradigm of political actors in parliament. At the very least, digital at its most minimalist point can bring about accelerative, innovative, transparent, responsive and participatory parliamentary work. Parliament 4.0 is ultimately a necessity that must be pursued, not least by the Indonesian parliament.
(Ferdian Andi, Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy and Law Studies (Puskapkum) HTN/HAN Lecturer at the Faculty of Sharia and Law UIN Jakarta)