Constitutional reform at risk as Megawati changes course<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
With two months remaining before the People's Consultative
\nAssembly (MPR) must approve the amended 1945 Constitution, fears
\nof a deadlock grow after President Megawati Soekarnoputri's
\ndecision to push for a delay in the direct presidential election.<\/p>\n
Political analyst Daniel Sparingga of Airlangga University
\n(Unair) said Megawati's statement signaled her party's weak
\nsupport for the amendment process.<\/p>\n
As the country's biggest party, Megawati's Indonesian
\nDemocratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) heavily influences
\nthe amendment process.<\/p>\n
\"It's common knowledge that PDI Perjuangan and the Indonesian
\nMilitary (TNI) faction want to review the entire amended parts of
\nthe Constitution from A to Z,\" Daniel said.<\/p>\n
Megawati told her party on Tuesday to lobby for a delay in the
\ndirect presidential election, reasoning that voters were
\nunprepared.<\/p>\n
In the third amendment process, legislators had agreed on a
\ndirect election as demanded by the popular reform movement.<\/p>\n
If the MPR manages to approve the amended Constitution by the
\nAugust annual session, people may vote for their president in the
\n2004 General Election.<\/p>\n
Waiting until next year's annual session was not an option due
\nto the limited time available to prepare for the 2004 election,
\nlaw experts have said.<\/p>\n
PDI Perjuangan may therefore only need to bring the amendment
\ntalks into deadlock next month to achieve its goal of delaying
\nthe direct presidential election.<\/p>\n
\"It would just take PDI Perjuangan and the TNI faction to stop
\nthe entire process of constitutional reform,\" Daniel said.<\/p>\n
PDI Perjuangan has been accused of foot-dragging before. The
\nparty took sides with the TNI when its free seats in the
\nlegislature met with public criticism last month.<\/p>\n
Megawati's bid to postpone the election also came just one day
\nafter her party blocked efforts to set up a political inquiry
\ninto a graft case implicating Golkar's chairman Akbar Tandjung.<\/p>\n
Analysts lambasted PDI Perjuangan's move as back-tracking on
\nreform commitments over short term political interests. They
\nsuspect a political deal with Golkar, the country's second
\nlargest political party.<\/p>\n
Golkar legislator Slamet Effendy Yusuf, the vice chairman of
\nthe MPR committee in charge of the amendment process, said his
\nparty \"so far\" still demanded a direct election by 2004.<\/p>\n
Smita Notosusanto of the Center for Electoral Reform (CETRO)
\nsaid that recent developments in the amendment process confirmed
\npublic suspicion that the MPR was unable to rid itself of vested
\ninterests.<\/p>\n
Daniel supported Smita and said that an independent commission
\nwould be more credible to discuss ideas of the kind Megawati had
\nproposed.<\/p>\n
He added that discussions over fundamental changes to this
\nnation require public participation and must exclude the
\npolitical elite. \"Major ideas should be discussed and approved by
\nthe people.\"<\/p>\n
Analyst Arbi Sanit of the University of Indonesia said the
\nMPR' amendment to the 1945 Constitution had lost credibility.<\/p>\n
\"The people's only hope is an independent commission that
\nwould take over the amendment process from the legislators,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Asked whether the legislators would willingly surrender their
\nauthority to amend the Constitution, he said it was \"unlikely\".<\/p>\n
Daniel said that in the event of a deadlock, the MPR would
\nlikely opt to return to the original 1945 Constitution.<\/p>\n
This scenario he said could lead to a legal vacuum where new
\nlaws based on the amended Constitution would be made invalid.<\/p>\n
He added that Megawati's argument for delaying the direct
\npresidential election was reasonable, but the statement itself
\nwas inappropriate. \"It (the statement) comes from someone who is
\ndirectly affected by the changes suggested.\"<\/p>\n
The President's bid to revise agreed articles of the amended
\nConstitution however was not the first attempt. Legislators have
\nconsidered revising other articles, explaining that some articles
\nlacked coherence.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/constitutional-reform-at-risk-as-megawati-changes-course-1447899208",
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