“THE ROLE OF THE REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL IN THE LAW MAKING PROCESS IN INDONESIA”

Since the establishment of the Regional Representative Council (the DPD) in 2004, there are 57 Bills that proposed by the DPD to the People Representative Council (the DPR). From 57 of the bills, there are none of the bills that processed by the DPR to be discussed in the legislation process.These two chambers are expected to create a better legislation process by double check system that may enable the representation of all society's interest relatively can be conducted by a wider social basis. The DPR is a reflection of political representation, whereas the DPD is a reflection the territorial representation principle or regional representation. The research aims at how to strengthening of the DPD in the law making process in Indonesia. This is a normative legal research which uses a statute approach. The result of research shows that there are two weaknesses of the position of the DPD in the legislation process. First, the DPD has limited authority in the legislation process that weaken its function as the legislators regarding the regional autonomy interests. Second, there is unclear procedure of discussion of the bills proposed by the DPD to the House of Representative Council (the DPR). The research recommends that first, the authority of the DPD in the legislation process needs to be strengthened to maximize the function of the DPD in legislation process. Second, there should be a more clear procedure of discussion on the bills proposed by the DPD to the DPR in order to create a better function of the DPD in the process of discussion of the bills proposed by the DPD to the DPR.
Key words: the Regional Representative Council, the House of Representative Council, law making process
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