'DPR commits constitution contempt'

'DPR commits constitution contempt'

Moch. N. Kurniawan and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta

Experts accused legislators and the government on Monday of
contempt of the Constitution for intentionally delaying the
debate on the constitutional court bill, and threatening a delay
in the establishment of the court until August.

"This is how our politicians try to deceive the people, who
are not aware of the political importance of this institution,"
Denny Indrayana, a law lecturer at Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada
University, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Although such contempt of the Constitution carried no legal
consequences for the politicians, it nevertheless showed their
lack of ethics, he said.

"If they insist on endorsing the bill this month, they will
produce a very poor law indeed," he added.

The House of Representatives has agreed to convene an
extraordinary plenary meeting on July 31 to endorse the bill.

Under the amended 1945 Constitution, a constitutional court
must be established by August 17, 2003.

But the House only began the deliberation of the bill on July
4.

The constitutional court will have a number of arduous tasks,
including recommending the impeachment of the president,
reviewing laws that are repugnant to the constitution, suspending
political parties, and settling disputes over election results.

Denny said that there were many flaws in the constitutional
court bill, including the stipulation that only the ombudsman
commission had the power to carry out an initial review of a
law's constitutionality before submitting it to the
constitutional court for a ruling, and that the constitutionality
of a law had to be challenged in the court within a period of 90
days after endorsement.

"The bill should allow other groups to see whether a law is
constitutional or otherwise, and leave open the possible review
of old laws that are against our Constitution. Without this, the
functions of the Constitutional Court will be unnecessarily
restrictive," Denny said.

Meanwhile, Hadar Nafis Gumay of the Center for Electoral
Reform (Cetro) said that the constitutional court bill as it now
stood would also render the court ineffective in settling
electoral disputes.

"The bill states that the court will have the authority to
resolve disputes over national election results. But the disputes
usually occur at the local level. Thus, it would be better if
this article were changed," he said.

An article allowing political parties and regional
representative candidates to file lawsuits over election results
with the constitutional court should also be revised, he said.

"People should also be facilitated in going to court over
unfair election results as they are not only the voters, but also
want to see transparent polls," Hadar said.

Bivitri Susanti, executive director of the Center for
Indonesian Law and Policy Studies (PSHK), agreed that politicians
had intentionally delayed the deliberation of the constitutional
court bill.

Denny said that if the constitutional court failed to be
established next month, it should be created by the end of this
year to ensure that next year's election process would be
overseen by an impartial referee.

Meanwhile, the minister of justice requested the People's
Consultative Assembly to prepare for a possible delay in the
establishment of the constitutional court.

"The bill from the House is far from perfect, and is very
complicated with 355 issues to be discussed," Minister for
Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra said on Monday,
after meeting the President.

He said it would be impossible for the House to meet the
deadline, and the Assembly would have to be ready to accept a
possible violation of the Constitution.

The Assembly is slated to start its annual session on Aug. 1.