DPR Anticipates Plenary Room Density Amid The Low Fact Of Their Attendance At Meetings

Photo illustration of the DPR plenary session (Mery Handayani / VOI)

JAKARTA - The House of Representatives (DPR) is firmly holding a Plenary Meeting to open the 2020 Session on Monday, March 30. The DPR admits that it will regulate the distance between members' seats with a minimum distance of one meter. Questions arise, about why the DPR is so insistent on meeting in the midst of this kind of COVID-19 emergency. Besides, will there be overcrowding? Isn't the DPR meeting room usually quiet? Isn't their attendance at meetings low?

Deputy Chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Arsul Sani, some time ago requested that the protocol for preventing COVID-19 in the DPR plenary session be tightened. Arsul had the idea that the distance between the seats for the trial participants was kept at least one meter.

"For example, the distance between seats must be one to two seats empty. For this reason, some members of the DPR are asked to be willing to join the Rapur from the balcony, which is usually for visitors. And the distance between seats is still regulated," said Arsul, Thursday, March 26.

Arsul also came up with the idea to shorten the duration of the meeting. So, later the material for discussion in the meeting will be distributed before the meeting begins to ask for approval from each member of the meeting. "So, don't read it," he said.

Furthermore, Arsul also asked every member who entered the meeting room to pass the body temperature inspection procedure first. "All members who entered the room were checked for body temperature," said Arsul.

Deputy Chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly Arsul Sani (Mery Handayani / VOI)

Don't bother

Efforts to prevent COVID-19 during a pandemic like this are important to do. The suggestion by DPR members to regulate seat spacing by setting a minimum distance of one meter is also important. However, if you reflect on the DPR's past absences, it seems they don't have to bother arranging that. After all, the level of attendance of DPR members at many meetings is usually low.

This can be seen since the first plenary meeting of board members. At that time, based on the records of the DPR's Secretariat General quoted by Detik.com, only 285 out of a total of 575 DPR members attended the meeting.

If counted, during the inaugural session, more than half or 50.43 percent of the members of the council skipped. This means that there are 290 councils that have not witnessed the agenda for the endorsement of the Chairman of the DPR, Puan Maharani.

In addition, empty seats in the Kura-Kura Building were also seen at the ninth plenary session of the II Session Period for the 2019-2020 session year on February 3. Quoting CNNIndonesia.com, at the meeting, of the 575 board members, only 289 were present. There was an increase of four.

However, what was fatal was the meeting discussing the Commission III report on the results of the feasibility test for candidates for supreme justice and candidates for ad hoc judge at the Supreme Court (MA) was not attended by Deputy Speaker of the DPR, Muhaimin Iskandar and Sufmi Dasco Ahmad.

So, we will see what will happen on March 30 if the plenary session is actually held. And the most important thing is to keep an eye on the contents of the discussion in the plenary session.