Commission tells members to zip it

Commission tells members to zip it

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Pressed for time, the Constitutional Commission will not allow
its members to talk too much during the remaining three weeks of
deliberation of the amended Constitution.

The commission has to finish harmonizing articles on the
amended Constitution and present its report before the Steering
Committee of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) on May 6.

The Assembly then has the prerogative to accept or reject the
commission's draft of constitutional amendments.

As of Monday, there were only six articles that had been
debated, with 30 more needing to be scrutinized in the next three
weeks.

Constitution deputy chairman Ishak Latuconsina said with only
about 18 effective days available, it would be difficult for the
31-member commission to settle the debate over the remaining
articles.

"We have limited time. That's why from now on we will not
allow members to speak too much," Ishak said on Monday.

Previously, each member was allocated 30 minutes to speak
while debating ammendents.

The commission was set up on October last year to
scrutinize articles in the amended Constitution, which many
critics had said reflected short-term political interests.

Following its establishment it was divided into two groups --
one to make an academic study of the constitutional amendments,
the other to write an alternative revision of the Constitution.

While both teams have finished their duties, many commission
members on Monday criticized the work and called for further
changes.

One of them, Bahder Johan Nasution, said the commission had
been working without a philosophy and had made serious errors as
almost half of the articles "harmonized" by the commission
actually contradicted each other.

"If endorsed, the articles will lead the nation into
collapse," he said.

Bahder also questioned the motive of the commission's plan to
scrap several articles on human rights and replace them with one
article on the adoption of several international conventions as
Indonesia's laws.

The commission had earlier sparked anger among House of
Representatives legislators for proposing to limit their terms in
office to only two five-year periods.

Another commission member, Abdul Rasyid, has suggested the
number of justices in the Constitutional Court be doubled to 18
members due to its important duties.

Under the present regulations, the House (DPR), the Supreme
Court (MA), and the President have authority to nominate three
candidates each.

"I think the President must not be given the right to nominate
candidates to ensure their independence," Abdul said.

In addition, Ishak revealed commission leaders had proposed
the creation of another smaller team to work intensively to
finish the group's work.

The commission had to rely on a smaller team to continue the
job in an attempt to lessen debate among the 31 members, Ishak
said.

The commission will also hear the opinion of Military chief
Gen. Endriartono Sutarto and National Police chief Gen. Da'i
Bachtiar on defense and security affairs during a discussion
scheduled for Wednesday.