Without PAW, Political Parties Are Not Serious In Responding To Public Aspirations

Illustration of PAW members of the DPR RI. (Photo: Special)

JAKARTA - Director of the Center for Constitutional, Democracy and Community Studies (Sideka) UIN Samarinda, Suwardi Sagama, assessed that the deactivation without being followed by interim replacements (PAW) against several members of the DPR showed that political parties (political parties) were not serious in responding to public aspirations.

"If it's serious, you should immediately do PAW because it is the party's authority. At the same time, clean up so that it doesn't happen again. So, instead of letting the fire still burn in the husks. It should be doused with water. This is instead covered with a new husk. Instead of a fire that will die, the opposite happens, the fire will get bigger," he explained, Friday, September 5, 2025.

As is known, several members of the Indonesian House of Representatives such as Adies Kadir, Ahmad Sahroni, Nafa Urbach, Eko Hendro Purnomo (Eko Patrio) and Surya Ula Uya (Uya Kuya) were disabled from their membership in parliament after being deemed to trigger public anger.

According to Suwardi, the deactivation of Adies and his friends was only a trick or strategy of political parties in reducing public criticism. This is because the term non-active members of the DPR are not clearly regulated in the Law on the MPR, DPR, DPD and DPRD (UU MD3) as well as DPR Regulations on Order.

"In the MD3 and Tatib 2020 Law, there is no deactivation term. There are interim changes (PAW) and temporary dismissals. So, the term deactivation is unknown. I read that the deactivation attempt was a trick for political parties to avoid public criticism," he added.

Karena tidak diatur secara rinci, penonaktifan tersebut tidak mempunyai konsekuensi hukum.

Seharusnya, mekanisme PAW yang ada bisa digunakan parpol untuk memecat anggota DPR yang tidak sejalan dengan aspirasi publik.

“Seharusnya, DPR menjadi lembaga terhormat dengan kewenangan yang dimiliki. Ini malah publik akan semakin apatis kepada lembaga DPR. Lembaga DPR RI seharusnya berdiri dengan terhormat menjalankan fungsinya check and balances kepada presiden dalam sistem presidensial,” tegas Suwardi.

Because it is not regulated in detail, the deactivation has no legal consequences.

The existing PAW mechanism should be used by political parties to fire DPR members who are not in line with public aspirations.

"The DPR should have become an honorable institution with its authority. In fact, the public will be increasingly aptical to the DPR. The DPR RI institution should have been honorably established to carry out its functions checks and balances to the president in the presidential system," said Suwardi.