I suggest that the new building budget be reviewed to make it more efficient, to avoid the people`s impression that the DPR members just want to live lavishly
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Golkar Party legislator Bambang Soesatyo has called on House Speaker Marzuki Alie to be wise in handling the plan to construct a new parliament building.

"The House Speaker should not isolate the Parliament from the people. He should be wire and accommodative," Bambang Soesatyo, said here Sunday.

The wisest step right now was to postpone the new building construction, he said.

"The postponement of the new building construction would ease the existing tension, so that the energy of the House of Representatives (DPR) and the government could be used to manage other and more strategic issues," he said.

The Golkar deputy treasurer said the people have considered that the cost amounting to Rp1.138 trillion to build the new tower was too high, while the existing buildings have not been used optimally.

"I suggest that the new building budget be reviewed to make it more efficient, to avoid the people`s impression that the DPR members just want to live lavishly," Bambang said.

The postponement of the new building construction would be in accordance with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono`s recent statement which called for the efficient use of budgets, he said.

In a consultative meeting held on Thursday (April 7), the DPR decided to go ahead with the plan to construct the new tower despite objections from some factions, and more importantly from a number of NGOs and ordinary people.

"The DPR leaders stick to the decision taken in the consultative meeting on October 19, 2010, when all factions gave their approval," House Speaker Marzuki Alie said after chairing the DPR leadership consultative meeting at the Parliament Building here Thursday (April 7).

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, after holding a limited cabinet meeting at the Presidential Office here on Thursday, asked government ranks and files to carry out his presidential instruction on optimal and efficient use of the budget particularly the 2011 budget.
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Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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