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.