Lessons in the past for a new constitution<\/p>\n
By Lambert Giebels<\/p>\n
This is the first of two articles on the inception of the
\nIndonesian Constitution.<\/p>\n
BREDA, The Netherlands (JP): Revision of the country's
\nConstitution, one of the demands of university students
\ndemonstrating against Soeharto's three-decade presidency earlier
\nthis year, will inevitably resuscitate issues which played a role
\nin its inception in 1945.<\/p>\n
The 1945 Constitution was drafted in haste. Towards the end of
\nthe Japanese rule, the military command in Java formed a
\ncommittee to prepare for an independent Indonesian nation.<\/p>\n
The committee, which consisted only of representatives from
\nJava, met for the first time on May 28, 1945. Three full days
\nwere spent arguing and in dead-end discussions. Then on June 1,
\nSukarno took the floor and gave his famous address in which he
\nproposed Pancasila, the five pillars or principles on which the
\nIndonesian state should be based. The five principles comprised
\nof a belief in one supreme God, nationalism, international
\nhumanism, consensual democracy and social justice for all. The
\nmembers of the committee welcomed Sukarno's proposal
\nenthusiastically and with loud applause.<\/p>\n
A Constitutional committee was formed under Sukarno's
\nchairmanship to work out the details of Pancasila. Sukarno's team
\nthen submitted a number of issues which needed consideration to a
\nplenary meeting of the committee set up to prepare for
\nindependence.<\/p>\n
One of these issues concerned the territories of the planned
\nstate. The majority of participants in the meeting proposed that
\nthe territories should include the former Malacca (currently
\ncalled Malaysia and Singapore), the Portuguese colony of eastern
\nTimor, British-ruled areas of Borneo and all of New Guinea,
\nbesides the territories of the Dutch East Indies.<\/p>\n
Another issue, on the planned form of government, led to a
\ndebate between Sukarno, who wanted a Unitarian state, and
\nMohammad Hatta, who preferred a federal state. The majority opted
\nfor a Unitarian state.<\/p>\n
The most difficult issue to decide upon was whether Indonesia
\nshould become an Islamic state. After ample consideration, a
\ncompromise was reached which became known as the Jakarta Charter.
\nThe compromise implied that Indonesian Moslems (nominally 90
\npercent of the population) would be obliged to observe Islamic
\nlaw and that only a Moslem could become president of the country.<\/p>\n
After these crucial decisions had been made, Sukarno's
\ncommittee were able to focus discussion on the drafting of the
\nConstitution. For that purpose, an editorial committee was
\nappointed under the chairmanship of Soepomo, a Leiden-educated
\nlawyer.<\/p>\n
Soepomo told his fellow committee members that there were
\nthree state ideologies -- liberalism, Marxism and a convergence
\nof the two. He rejected liberalism because this would stimulate
\nindividual egoism and Marxism because it would stimulate group
\negoism.<\/p>\n
According to the minutes of the meeting, he summarized his
\nvision as follows: \"The state should be neither the protector of
\nindividuals nor groups. It should be the organized community
\nitself.\" He won applause from the meeting.<\/p>\n
Never has a constitution been so energetically drafted as by
\nSoepomo. In only one day he prepared and submitted a draft
\nconstitution. His concept was accepted by the committee on July
\n16 with only a few minor amendments.<\/p>\n
However,the work of the constitutional committee was under a
\nthreat of being overtaken by the course of world events. On Aug.
\n7, one day after the United States dropped an atom bomb on the
\nJapanese city of Hiroshima, Sukarno and Hatta were summoned to
\nthe headquarters of Japan's Southern Armies in Saigon. The
\ncommander in chief there, Count Terauchi, informed them that the
\nJapanese emperor planned to allow Indonesia to commence
\npreparations for independence.<\/p>\n
Terauchi announced the establishment of a preparatory
\ncommittee which would consist of representatives from throughout
\nIndonesia under the chairmanship of Sukarno. He also announced
\nthat the planned independence would be restricted to the
\nterritories of the Dutch East Indies and that the new state would
\nbe a federal one.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 14, Sukarno and Hatta carried that news back to
\nJakarta. Time was short because the Allies had presented an
\nultimatum to Japan and the Soviet Union after attacking the
\nvassal state of Mansyu-Koku in Japan. The next day, Japan
\ncapitulated.<\/p>\n
Under pressure from youths (who abducted Sukarno and Hatta on
\nAug. 16), Sukarno declared Indonesia independent in the front
\ngarden of his house at 10:00 a.m. on Aug. 17. The following day,
\nthe preparatory committee elected Sukarno president and Hatta
\nvice president. The Constitution was adopted on that same day.<\/p>\n
All these incidents took place in the nick of time. On Aug.
\n19, the Japanese commander on Java informed Sukarno and Hatta
\nthat he had been instructed by Tokyo, in conformance with terms
\nlaid down by the Allies, to sustain the status quo in Japanese-
\noccupied territories. This meant that the preparatory committee
\ninitiated by Japan had to be dissolved.<\/p>\n
Before the Constitution was proclaimed on Aug. 18, a few
\nimportant amendments to its original concept were made. For
\nexample, the initial preamble in the original constitution
\ncontained an ode to Japan and an elegy to 300 years of colonial
\nsuppression. Both passages were deleted. What remained was the
\nrousing sentence: \"Freedom is the right of all peoples and
\ntherefore the colonial system in the world must be abolished.\"<\/p>\n
This statement was followed by an outline of the concept of
\nPancasila already formulated by Sukarno. In view of Terauchi's
\ninstruction, the idea of a Greater Indonesia was dropped.
\nHowever, the idea of a Unitarian state was retained.<\/p>\n
The most important amendment made on Aug. 18 was the scrapping
\nof conditions intended to secure the presidency for Moslems and
\nprevent them from turning away from their religion. These
\nconditions were scrapped for an urgent reason. Hatta had heard
\nrumors that non-Moslem areas in the archipelago had refused to
\njoin a possible Moslem state. He immediately saw the danger --
\nChristian areas such as the Moluccas, Flores, Minahasa, the Batak
\nlands in Sumatra and the Hindu island of Bali might seek their
\nfortune with the Netherlands. After hasty consultation with
\nMoslem leaders, the preparatory committee decided to drop the two
\nconditions.<\/p>\n
The 1945 Constitution shows the influence of various
\nconstitutional perceptions.<\/p>\n
American influence can be seen in the presidential system.
\nUnder the Constitution, the president is commander in chief of
\nthe Armed Forces, can declare war and peace and has the
\nprerogative right to appoint and dismiss ministers who are
\nanswerable to him alone. The American constitution states that
\nthe sovereignty of the people is embodied in Congress, while the
\nIndonesian Constitution stipulates that the peoples' sovereignty
\nlies in the hands of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).<\/p>\n
The MPR, which convenes at least once every five years,
\nappoints a president and vice president and determines the state
\npolicy guidelines which should be implemented by the country's
\nexecutive body in the ensuing five years.<\/p>\n
The Constitution does not explicitly state that the MPR can
\ndismiss the president, but this seems to be implied by the fact
\nthat it is responsible for making the appointing in the first
\nplace. The president for his part cannot dissolve the MPR. When
\nSoeharto stepped down and appointed Habibie as his successor, he
\nreferred to a section of the Constitution which states: \"In case
\nof becoming deceased, resigning or ineptitude in fulfilling his
\ntask, the president will be replaced by the vice president to the
\nend of his term in office,\" -- an article which again bears a
\nresemblance to parts of the American constitution.<\/p>\n
Some influence of the Dutch constitution is revealed by the
\nadoption of a decentralized Unitarian state. This is a state in
\nwhich the local authorities (in provinces, regencies and
\nmunicipalities) have a certain degree of autonomy, under the
\nsupervision of the central government. These devolution of power
\nlead Hatta to give up his objections to a Unitarian state.<\/p>\n
The writer is a Dutch historian who is now in the process of
\nwriting a biography on the life of Indonesia's first president
\nSukarno to be published by the end of next year.<\/p>\n
Window: Never has a constitution been so energetically drafted as
\nby Soepomo. In only one day he prepared and submitted a draft
\nconstitution. His concept was accepted by the committee on July
\n16 with only a few minor amendments.<\/p>",
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