Travel like a Legislator
Monday, 30 April, 2012 | 15:16 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Members of the House of Representatives (DPR) are permitted to travel abroad during recess period. However, the recent trip by DPR members to Germany has attracted significant criticism.

Led by the DPO’s Commission’s 1 deputy-chairman Hayono Isman, the legislators went to Germany to visit among others, a Leopard tank factory. The legislators also visited the Indonesian Embassy in Berlin where they encountered protest from the Indonesian Student Association (PPI) in Germany.

The students questioned the urgency of the Rp3.2-billion visit. The PPI believes that such a visit was nothing but an excuse for DPR members to travel using the state budget. Furthermore, some of the DPR members brought their families. The PPI activists slammed the visit calling it a waste of money.

The objections could have embarrassed the DPR members but on the contrary, legislators carried on with the multiple visits planned during their “comparative study.”

Members of the DPR have traveled abroad 163 times since 2004.