Dull can be good

The annual session of the present People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which opens on Friday, promises to be the dullest of all since 2000. Unlike the past MPR gatherings, which were always filled with controversies that they generated so much public (and media) interest, the meeting this time around is almost void of controversy.

The meeting could prove to be something of an anticlimax to the present set of assembly, which has done so much to change the country's political landscape since 1999. After the 2004 election, the MPR will no longer enjoy as much power as it does now, thanks to its own work in amending the 1945 Constitution.

In fact, there is a question mark about the need to hold the annual session after 2004, given the changes to the constitution.

Dull and anticlimactic it may be, but the session is still an important event, at least for this year.

When all is said and done, the annual MPR session is an important exercise in democracy. This tradition of meeting every year, instead of only at the start and the end of its five-yearly sitting, began in 1999 as part of an effort to make all state institutions more publicly accountable.

The idea is to make the president, the House of Representatives, the Supreme Court, and the State Audit Agency present a progress report on a yearly basis to the people. The MPR, as representatives of the people, could inquire and reprimand, though not to punish, state institutions for their failings and shortcomings.

Seen in this context, the annual MPR session helps to improve the public accountability of state bodies. And it keeps the people well informed about their work.

The previous system was practically devoid of such a mechanism of accountability. Hence, Soeharto was able to rule for 32 years and still claimed to be Indonesia's constitutional leader. He then had only to report to the MPR, whose selection he controlled, once every five years. He never had to report to the MPR that "elected" him; instead, he reported to the newly selected MPR at the end of each of his five-year terms in office.

All that changed after Soeharto's departure in 1998.

Accountability became very much part of the nation's political vocabulary since 1999 as Indonesia embarked on a journey to build the nation upon more solid democratic grounds. Holding an MPR meeting every year is part of that endeavor.

What made the first three MPR annual gatherings (from 2000 and 2002) interesting was not so much the progress reports by the various state institutions. Controversies usually occurred elsewhere as political factions and leaders turned the meeting into a ground for the nation's power struggle.

The 2000 MPR meeting was used to try to impeach then president Abdurrahman Wahid. The MPR failed in its first attempt, but succeeded in removing him 11 months later. The impeachment paved the way for Megawati Soekarnoputri, then the vice president, to take over the number one job.

The 2001 MPR meeting was used by Megawati's faction, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), to effectively curtail MPR's powers in impeaching the president. Her party succeeded in pushing for this constitutional amendment, but it conceded on other points, including on the direct presidential election mechanism beginning in 2004.

The 2002 meeting saw the factions battling to fight for their respective interests as the MPR finalized the constitutional amendment process to prepare the nation for its 2004 elections.

These amendments were not perfect by any means, but one salient point of the new look of the constitution is that it actually gives greater power to the people in electing their leaders, including in directly electing the president. The constitution also sought, with relative success, to distribute power more equally between the president and the legislature.

With the constitutional amendment process virtually completed, at least for now, there is little left for our politicians to talk about as they gather once again in Jakarta beginning on Friday. There will not be as many controversies that the nation has become accustomed to these last three years, that the meeting will probably generate little public interests.

The MPR however still has to go through the motion. The various state institutions still have to present their progress reports to the assembly, and face reprimands or whatever reactions the MPR, as representatives of the people, have.

Even here, do not expect too much controversy. The nation has, by now, learned to lower its expectations from these state institutions, and is more forgiving for their shortcomings.

In another country and another era, the lack of controversy in such a big political gathering would be a sign that the nation has reached political maturity. While this is hardly the case for Indonesia, the lack of controversy in this MPR meeting is still welcome, if only to give the nation a break from the seemingly endless political fighting.

Dull can be good and welcoming sometimes.