MPR session opens under pressure<\/p>\n
By Dwi Atmanta and Santi W.E. Soekanto<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): When House Speaker Harmoko bangs his gavel and
\nopens the five-yearly General Session of the People's
\nConsultative Assembly this morning, the curtain rises on the
\nimmense responsibility that each of the 1,000 legislators bears
\non their shoulders.<\/p>\n
They will, during the course of the eleven-day convention,
\ndeliberate and endorse the State Policy Guidelines for the next
\nfive years, and elect a president and vice president. Errors and
\nmistaken decisions will adversely affect the lives of the
\ncountry's 202 million inhabitants.<\/p>\n
The Rp 44.7 billion (US$5 million) event will deserve a
\nspecial place in history by virtue of a different backdrop from
\nthe 1993 session. Then, many people's main concern was whether
\nvice president-elect Try Sutrisno would eventually replace then
\npresident-elect Soeharto midway through his sixth five-year term.<\/p>\n
The 1998 General Session, in contrast, is being held while the
\ncountry is buckling under an economic crisis and political
\nrestlessness. Many people ask not only about what will happen
\nafter the legislators reelect Soeharto for his seventh term, but
\nalso what other crises Indonesia will face afterward.<\/p>\n
One of the reasons for the restlessness is that in the months
\nprior to the session, the economy took such a severe beating that
\nsome people found themselves asking, after some 25 years of
\nrelative prosperity, whether they would be able to feed, clothe
\nand send their children to school tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Reports about food shortages in remote areas sneaked into
\npeople's consciousness and left their mark. Rioting and
\ndemonstrations against soaring prices that left at least five
\ndead were some of the ways people reacted toward the crisis.<\/p>\n
Given that the food riots occurred so soon before the
\nAssembly, the authorities then clamped down on protesters and
\nattributed the upheavals to \"irresponsible groups\" seeking to
\ndisrupt the General Session and undermine the government.<\/p>\n
There's another element to the session's social, economic and
\npolitical backdrop -- namely the unprecedented increase in the
\ndemands for reform.<\/p>\n
Granted, there are too many definitions of reform to count,
\nbut, over time, more and more people have spelled it out as
\npresidential succession and an overhaul of the economic and
\npolitical system.<\/p>\n
\"Seeking economic reform is useless unless it is accompanied
\nby political reform,\" one critic said.<\/p>\n
There are both local and international parties which wish to
\nsee Indonesia stable out of fear that change means chaos that may
\naffect not only the region but beyond. Those who seek change, on
\nthe other hand, also draw their strength from a sense that a
\ngrowing number of people, both here and outside Indonesia,
\nsupport their cause.<\/p>\n
In many ways, the General Session is a display of how strongly
\nentrenched are the political system and mechanisms that President
\nSoeharto has built over the past 30 years.<\/p>\n
Assembly members enter the venue today with full knowledge
\nthat they are not supposed to dissent, interrupt or vote against
\npresidential and vice presidential candidates Soeharto and B.J.
\nHabibie.<\/p>\n
However, the General Session is but a stage in the nation's
\nlife; it will eventually end. Outside of the renovated House of
\nRepresentatives building, millions of people are still waiting
\nand asking: What's next?<\/p>\n
Uniform<\/p>\n
The ample experience of holding five conventions under the New
\nOrder is not likely to encourage the People's Consultative
\nAssembly to break away from the conventional uniformity of
\nopinion.<\/p>\n
This was clearly indicated in that the Assembly working
\ncommittee ended in January its three months of deliberation on
\nthe draft of state policy guidelines -- sponsored by the ruling
\nGolkar organization -- without introducing significant changes
\nfrom the previous guidelines.<\/p>\n
The formidable Golkar and its allies -- the Armed Forces and
\nthe regional representatives factions -- managed to override
\nattempts by the minority Indonesian Democratic Party and United
\nDevelopment Party (PPP) factions to introduce change.<\/p>\n
Included in the major decrees completed by the working
\ncommittee is one that will give the next president extra power to
\ntake preemptive measures if the country is in danger or the
\ndevelopment programs fail to run according to plan.<\/p>\n
Now that the five factions have also unanimously agreed on the
\npresidential and vice presidential candidates, there will be no
\ncrucial issues left for the Assembly's 1,000 members to debate,
\nas PPP executive Jusuf Syakir put it.<\/p>\n
\"Of course the General Session will serve as merely a
\nceremony, but should it matter to us?\" said Jusuf, who will lead
\nthe PPP's 134-strong team in the quinquennial convention.<\/p>\n
\"It's like a preparation for a wedding service,\" he said
\nrecently. \"We have to pass a set of traditional and religious
\nprocedures. They may take us a long time, although the wedding
\nservice itself may last just one minute.\"<\/p>\n
Jusuf however does not take it for granted that the session
\nwill run smoothly just because of the preliminary agreements.<\/p>\n
\"The agreements were made by 90 members of the Assembly
\nworking committee. I believe a lot of debates will still mark the
\nupcoming General Session because of the presence of another 910
\nmembers,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"The (State Policy Guidelines) draft, although it has been
\napproved already, is not the final product. It needs a second
\nlook,\" Jusuf said.<\/p>\n
Another PPP legislator, Hadimulyo, said further debate was
\nneeded on the question of the basis for long-term development
\nprograms, moving from economic growth to human resources
\nimprovement.<\/p>\n
\"We have been paying too much attention to economic growth
\nwhile neglecting human resources development,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He also called for courage to break constraints that have kept
\npolitical organizations immature.<\/p>\n
He was referring to the failure of the Assembly to revoke the
\ncontroversial floating mass policy which bans political groups
\ncontesting the general elections from campaigning in villages and
\nsubdistricts.<\/p>\n
\"The policy favors Golkar because the administration personnel
\nin subdistricts and villages are Golkar cadres,\" he said.<\/p>",
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