Constitutional Commission ends term
Constitutional Commission ends term
Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta
The Constitutional Commission marked the end of its seven-month
existence on Thursday by submitting a white paper and draft
amendments of the Constitution to the People's Consultative
Assembly (MPR) working commission.
The document was accepted by Assembly speaker Amien Rais
during a plenary meeting.
Commission chairman Sri Soemantri said he hoped the next MPR
would appreciate the hard work of the 31-strong commission.
"We hope that our thoughts and ideas will be adopted so as to
improve the Constitution for the sake of improved state
administration," Soemantri said emotionally.
The 78-year-old constitutional law lecturer said his
commission had done its best to accommodate suggestions from the
public and ensure the enrichment of the Constitution, which
lawmakers have amended on a number of occasions over the past
four years.
One of the commission's contributions, Soemantri said, was a
proposal to give independent candidates the chance of running for
the presidency.
Under the current Constitution, only figures nominated by
political parties or groupings of parties that win at least 3
percent of legislative seats or 5 percent of the vote are
eligible to put forward candidates in the presidential election.
Regarding law-making power, Soemantri said that under the
presidential system only the legislature was authorized to make
laws.
Therefore, the President is granted the right to veto any
bills proposed by the House of Representatives (DPR). Should the
president reject a bill, the lawmakers have to start the process
of deliberating the bill again.
If the bill is then approved by two-thirds of House members,
the President is required to sign the bill into law.
Soemantri acknowledged there had been debate among commission
members over the articles on human rights. Some members said the
articles should be scrapped, but some others insisted on
maintaining the human rights articles in the Constitution.
"Finally, we decided to retain the articles on human rights in
the Constitution," he said.
Soemantri added that his commission had also advised that
freedom of the press be incorporated into Article 28 of the
Constitution.
Surprisingly, M. Asrun, one of the commission members, said
that he rejected the final report of the commission and urged the
MPR to disregard it.
Speaking to the press after receiving the commission's report,
MPR speaker Amien Rais said the Assembly members would neither
revise nor criticize the draft.
Amien added that the Assembly would hand over the
Constitutional Commission's report to the Assembly elected at the
5 April polls.
The next MPR will consist of the House of Representatives and
Regional Representatives Council members.