Recess of Legislative Member Meeting

Identifying Local Network

Recess is a legislation phase that must be done by each member of house of representative board. The recess period is regulated by the law and intended to give an opportunity to every legislator to get in touch with constituent. This opportunity is also a mean for the legislator to meet the constituent. Constituent or representing local election communities can express complaint and hope at the time of common ground aspirations held.

In February and March 2017, all members of House of Representatives in Indonesia do recess. However, there is also a case that a legislator does not take the recess time to meet the constituent, but it is not in the village area of Margasakti.

Hotman Sihombing, S.Th was elected and inaugurated as a member of Regional House of Representative in North Bengkulu for a period of 2014-2019. He was elected because he collected enough voters from three sub-districts coverings Padang Jaya, Girimulyo and Air Padang. The first recess time this year, H. Sihombing used to listen to aspirations of the three villages namely Margasakti, Sidoluhur and Tanah Hitam. Villager invited in the meeting was limited with invitation quota only for 190 people. Therefore only the representatives were invited.

An aspiration meeting as part of the first activity during the recess period was held in the yard of his house in Margasakti village, on Friday, 17th February 2017 at 13.00. Guest book showed that 155 villagers attend in the meeting. Yohanes Dian Alpasa attended the meeting and had responsibility for pictures documentation.

Three village leaders who attended the meeting were given a chance to express their hope first. The village chief of Margasakti expressed appreciation to him that during two- year service, people experienced little by little development, such as renovation of worship houses and road paving. Currently, Margasakti village still needs a new bridge in the south-western of village. Based on the planning, school and bridge will be built as it is most urgent and relevant.

The village chief of Tanah Hitam proposed tourism revitalization at Curug Sembilan waterfall because it has big potential and it is expected that one investor wants to come there to make an infestation. While, Chief of Sidoluhur expressed that the existing road in the village both access between villages or access of agricultural production (access to rice field or to the garden need improvement).

Responding to the expectation, H. Sihombing explained that the construction project is done in accordance with each institution authority to avoid overlapping. Therefore, when the development is the responsibility of central government (using national budget) then the local government has no need to rush because the project will wait the realization of national budget. All the coming suggestions were stored and fought however it should be completed with enough data. Curug Sembilan waterfall is a waterfall in the conservation forest area under the authority of the ministry of forestry. So, only the ministry of tourism will be able to manage this area when he gets permission from the ministry of forestry. All the budget is divided based on the priority scale of Regional Government Budget of North Bengkulu that is around 1.2 Trillion Rupiah each year, and 60% of it used for budget expenditure of employee’s salaries. So the amount allocated for the development around 300 up to 400 Billion Rupiah. According to H.Sihombing, a political situation in Margasakti village ever raising so that an aid had ever been transferred to another sub-disctrict that was to Ketahun.

The meeting is important for the multiplication program because all potency, regional plan, as well as the burden of one region is clearly defined. From the meeting, it can be concluded that to build an area requires togetherness from all elements of society. (YDA).