Commission may rid Constitution of political self-interest
Commission may rid Constitution of political self-interest
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Constitutional Commission has promised it would deal with the
substance of the amended Constitution and neutralize articles
regarded that contain short-term interests beneficial to certain
political parties.
"We will try to get rid of any political interests in the
amended Constitution and make it better," the commission's deputy
chairman Albert Hasibuan vowed after a meeting with chairman Sri
Soemantri and deputy chairman Ishak Latuconsina here on Friday.
Albert, however, declined to go into detail, saying the
commission would discuss it at a plenary meeting scheduled for
Monday.
The meeting on Friday was held to discuss the working
mechanisms and agenda of the commission for their 7-month tenure.
Albert said the commission would revise several articles which
many considered inappropriate.
Soemantri earlier said that many articles in the amended
Constitution were made via consensus between competing interest
groups, causing inconsistencies between one article to another.
Among the changes to be made would be an article on the
Regional Representatives Council (DPD), which is not equipped
with adequate authority in accordance with the bicameral system
Indonesia will adopt after the 2004 elections.
The DPD and the House of Representatives (DPR) will make up
the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).
Political parties, through their lawmakers in the Assembly,
agreed to limit the power of the DPD whose members must have no
affiliation to a political party.
Albert, a former member of the National Commission on Human
Rights (Komnas HAM), said that although the Constitutional
Commission was created simply to assess and to harmonize articles
in the amended Constitution, his 31-member team would upgrade the
Constitution.
During its second meeting on Monday, the commission expects to
hear input from its members on the mechanism and schedule of its
work.
Each member will be given three minutes to deliver his or her
opinions.
The Assembly agreed to create a Constitutional Commission last
year in a bid to appease public demand for a truly independent
commission with a strong mandate to write a new Constitution.
Responding to the demand, the Assembly worked out its own
compromise by forming its an MPR-run, semi-independent Commission
but only gave it authority to "assess" the Constitution.
The Commission will work for seven months and report next year
to the Assembly which will then decide whether to approve it or
not.