Constitutional changes may be postponed

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Legislators of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) look set to postpone until next year deliberation of the stalled, contentious issue of a direct presidential election during their last day of the Annual Session this Friday.

Also stalled is the debate on a constitutional commission, which NGO activists say is a ploy to avoid discussing their demands for an independent commission.

Assembly Speaker Amien Rais said in the evening on Thursday that the legislators would still attempt to reach a consensus on the presidential election in the remaining hours.

Voting, which was frowned upon in the past, will be considered if the opposing factions failed to minimize their differences, Amien said after a consultative meeting with the leaders of the four major factions.

Under the MPR's internal rules, voting on a constitutional amendment is only valid if the plenary session is attended by at least two-thirds of the Assembly's members, and the amendment is supported by two-thirds of those present.

But in a plenary session attended by President Megawati Soekarnoputri last night, major factions hinted that they would rather postpone the deliberation until next year's session.

There are a number of burning issues related to the preparations for the 2004 elections including the composition of the Assembly, the presidential election, impeachment, composition of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) and general elections.

The members do agree that if a candidate receives over 50 percent of the popular vote in the first round of balloting, he or she will be inaugurated.

However, if none of the candidates receives over 50 percent, some members think the second round of voting should be done in the MPR, while others believe the second round should again be voted on by the general public.

"The majority of the factions ... favor the MPR vote in a second round, as they believe that the system will be more effective, less costly and will be more secure," according to Amien.

The other burning issue is whether the Assembly will consist of only the House of Representatives and the Regional Representatives Council or consist of the House, the Regional Representatives Council and non-elected Interest Group leaders.

Speaking at a plenary meeting on Thursday, chairman of Commission A, Jakob Tobing revealed that most of the amendments to the articles in the Constitution were unfinished, thus offering the Assembly merely a list of options for amendment.

Due to uncertainty in the amendment process, Jakob said the legislators had agreed to suspend the creation of a constitutional commission and promised to bring the subject up for further deliberation at next year's Annual Session.

The idea for the creation of a constitutional commission was raised by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the Golkar Party, and the National Awakening Party (PKB).

The decision to suspend the establishment of the commission was made after the Assembly factions were unable to reach agreement on the authority, the membership, the tenure and the deadline of the commission.

"We convey this matter to the Assembly's Working Body for further deliberation, including talks on the possibility of finding another body to work on it," he added.