MPR told to side with public<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Experts asked the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) on
\nTuesday to focus more concern on people's interests rather than
\ntheir short-term political benefits in amending the 1945
\nConstitution.<\/p>\n
Legal experts Adnan Buyung Nasution of the Indonesian Legal
\nAid Institute (LBH) and Abdul Bari Azed of the University of
\nIndonesia said that the Assembly had not yet amended articles
\nthat had a direct impact on the public.<\/p>\n
Buyung said that of the 29 articles the Assembly had amended,
\nnone sided with the people.<\/p>\n
\"So what is the current amendment process for? The result is
\nmerely to serve the interests of the political elite,\" he said in
\na symposium on the constitutional amendment held by the Golkar
\nParty.<\/p>\n
Similarly, Azed questioned the importance of the amendment
\nprocess.<\/p>\n
Both Buyung and Azed proposed that there should be an
\nindependent commission whose members were nonsectarian experts
\nand non-governmental organizations, rather than the Assembly to
\namend the Constitution.<\/p>\n
Buyung said the Assembly had not touched Article 33, which
\nstipulates that production activities essential to the country
\nand governing people's lives should be controlled by the state.<\/p>\n
This is ironic as many state-owned enterprises are planned to
\nbe privatized, he said.<\/p>\n
Article 34, which stipulates that poverty-stricken and
\nneglected children shall be cared for by the state, was also
\nneeded to be elaborated on but the Assembly had not discussed it
\ndespite various interpretations of the article, he added.<\/p>\n
Due to the weakness of Article 34, he said, former president
\nAbdurrahman Wahid arbitrarily dissolved the social ministry when
\npeople were hit hard by the economic crisis, thus abandoning the
\ngovernment's obligation.<\/p>\n
The Assembly has been amending the 1945 Constitution since
\n1999 to comply with the reform agenda after the fall of the
\nSoeharto regime in mid-1998.<\/p>\n
But critics have said that Assembly members had a political
\nagenda, such as to win the 2004 election, which has created new
\nbut unclear articles.<\/p>\n
Therefore, there's a growing demand to set up an independent
\ncommission to amend the 1945 Constitution.<\/p>\n
Buyung accused Assembly members of having no clear concept or
\nvision for amending the Constitution, leaving loopholes in the
\nresult.<\/p>",
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