Battle of narrow interests may hinder amendment process

Battle of narrow interests may hinder amendment process

A'an Suryana and Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Many fear that the ongoing constitutional amendment in the
People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) may eventually fail to
harvest an ideal constitution if its process is plagued by a
battle of narrow interests among legislators.

"How can we expect much from the legislators, if their
existence itself depends heavily on the contents of the
Constitution (to be amended)? This is a serious problem," Rachman
Tolleng, a former student activist and nationalist, said on
Thursday.

Rachman, who is also from the Democracy Forum, told The
Jakarta Post that the establishment of an independent
constitutional commission was the best alternative to avoid total
failure in the amendment of the 1945 Constitution.

Rachman expressed concern over the legislators of the MPR's
ad-hoc commission in charge of the revision of the Constitution,
who were absorbed in a struggle for their own interests within
the amendment process.

Some groups, including those in the functional groups and the
military and police faction, were struggling to maintain their
existence at the MPR. In the draft amendment, their faction will
not exist under the new constitution.

His statement refers to a plan to end the presence of the
functional groups and the military and police faction in the MPR.

Almost six months after the MPR was given the go-ahead to
amend the constitution, only six of the 18 targeted articles have
been deliberated by the commission. With only four months before
MPR's annual session in August during which the amendments were
expected to be endorsed, there is a growing suspicion that the
MPR is not serious about the amendment.

Besides fighting for survival in the MPR, some legislators had
also been accused of pursuing their own ideological agenda in the
deliberation on the amendment, said nationalist Rachmawati
Soekarnoputri on a separate occasion.

"Some groups, for example, are pushing ahead for the
reinclusion of the Jakarta Charter with others insisting on the
imposition of radical regional autonomy regulations, which will
be a threat to the unitary state of Indonesia," Rachmawati, the
chairwoman of the nationalist grouping Forum National, told a
press conference at Bung Karno University (UBK) here.

The reinclusion of the Jakarta Charter, which had been dropped
from the Constitution in 1945, has become a contentious issue.
Some right wing Muslims have pushed for its inclusion as a means
to promote the implementation of syariah (Islamic law) in
Indonesia.

Those groups include the United Development Party (PPP), whose
legislators hold a significant number of seats in the MPR.

The nationalists and minority groupings have strongly rejected
the reinclusion of the Jakarta Charter.

The regional autonomy drive has also been opposed by
nationalists for fear that it may cause the disintegration of the
nation.

According to Rachman, such a battle of interests would prevent
the formation of the best constitution in the future.

"Therefore, an independent constitutional commission must
eventually be established to avoid such conflict among the
legislators," said Rachman, who had a significant role in the
student movement during Soeharto's early years in the 1970s.

Rachmawati said that the battle of interests had provided
strong justification for the amendment process to be halted.

"Learning from the history, the battle of the interests would
end up in a deadlock, and this would later create a
constitutional crisis as had occurred in the late 1950s," said
Rachmawati, a daughter of president Sukarno.

Following the failure of the parliament to create a new
constitution, Sukarno was forced to issue a presidential decree
in 1959 that the country had to refer back to the 1945
Constitution.