Student (bottom right): I hope you actually do work

Lawmaker’s sunglasses read “political party interests”, glasses in hand read “the ordinary people’s interests”.

Only days after country witnessed a massive wave of student-led protests against the weakening of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and a slew of anti-democratic legislation, the newly inaugurated members of the House of Representatives (DPR) now say they will prioritise the very laws that the students were protesting against.

Speaking in Jakarta on October 1, newly appointed DPR Speaker Puan Maharani from President Joko Widodo’s ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle said that the eight draft laws (RUU) which were postponed due to widespread public opposition by the previous DPR will be prioritised and included in the 2019-2024 Priority National Legislation Program (Prolegnas).

“There are eight laws which were postponed during the last period. These will of course be included in the next Prolegnas although of course the mechanisms and procedures we will use will follow the new rules of conduct”, Maharani said.

Although Maharani did not elaborate on which eight laws would be prioritised and claimed that the DPR leadership would study them first before presenting them for deliberation, she made no mention whatsoever of the widespread public opposition to the laws or whether the DPR was even considering listening to any input from the public.