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.