Deadlock feared in constitutional amendment process

Deadlock feared in constitutional amendment process

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With two months remaining before the People's Consultative
Assembly (MPR) must approve the amended 1945 Constitution, fears
of a deadlock grow after President Megawati Soekarnoputri's
decision to push for a delay in the direct presidential election.

Political analyst Daniel Sparingga of the Surabaya-based
Airlangga University (Unair) said Megawati's statement signaled
her party's weak support for the amendment process.

As the country's biggest party, Megawati's Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) heavily influences
the amendment process.

"It's common knowledge that PDI Perjuangan and the Indonesian
Military (TNI) faction want to review the entire amended parts of
the Constitution from A to Z," Daniel said.

Megawati told her party on Tuesday to lobby for a delay in the
direct presidential election, reasoning that voters were
unprepared.

In the third amendment process, legislators had agreed on a
direct election as demanded by the popular reform movement.

If the MPR manages to approve the amended Constitution by the
August annual session, people may vote for their president in the
2004 General Election.

Waiting until next year's annual session was not an option due
to the limited time available to prepare for the 2004 election,
law experts have said.

PDI Perjuangan may therefore only need to bring the amendment
talks into deadlock next month to achieve its goal of delaying
the direct presidential election.

"It would just take PDI Perjuangan and the TNI faction to stop
the entire process of constitutional reform," Daniel said.

PDI Perjuangan has been accused of foot-dragging before. The
party took sides with the TNI when its free seats in the
legislature met with public criticism last month.

Megawati's bid to postpone the election also came just one day
after her party blocked efforts to set up a political inquiry
into a graft case implicating Golkar's chairman Akbar Tandjung.

Analysts lambasted PDI Perjuangan's move as back-tracking on
reform commitments over short term political interests. They
suspect a political deal with Golkar, the country's second
largest political party.

Golkar legislator Slamet Effendy Yusuf, the vice chairman of
the MPR committee in charge of the amendment process, said his
party "so far" still demanded a direct election by 2004.

Smita Notosusanto of the Center for Electoral Reform (CETRO)
said that recent developments in the amendment process confirmed
public suspicion that the MPR was unable to rid itself of vested
interests.

Daniel supported Smita and said that an independent commission
would be more credible to discuss ideas of the kind Megawati had
proposed.

He added that discussions over fundamental changes to this
nation require public participation and must exclude the
political elite. "Major ideas should be discussed and approved by
the people."

Analyst Arbi Sanit of the University of Indonesia said the
MPR' amendment to the 1945 Constitution had lost credibility.

"The people's only hope is an independent commission that
would take over the amendment process from the legislators," he
said.

Asked whether the legislators would willingly surrender their
authority to amend the Constitution, he said it was "unlikely".

Daniel said that in the event of a deadlock, the MPR would
likely opt to return to the original 1945 Constitution.

This scenario he said could lead to a legal vacuum where new
laws based on the amended Constitution would be made invalid.

He added that Megawati's argument for delaying the direct
presidential election was reasonable, but the statement itself
was inappropriate. "It (the statement) comes from someone who is
directly affected by the changes suggested."

The President's bid to revise agreed articles of the amended
Constitution however was not the first attempt. Legislators have
considered revising other articles, explaining that some articles
lacked coherence.