Experts call for empowerment of DPD
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Further revisions to the 1945 Constitution are the only way to empower the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) as well as to cope with the conflict between it and the powerful House of Representatives, say political analysts and constitutional law experts.
Makmur Keliat of the Ridep Institute and Syamsuddin Haris of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said that its limited authority, function and size have made the DPD unable to work effectively after its establishment nine months ago.
Unlike the Senate in the United States, the DPD was a very weak institution because its legislative and budgetary rights and control functions were very limited and it was not in an equal position with the 550-member DPR, Makmur said.
"This situation is not conducive to the development of democracy in the country since the nation has committed itself to a bicameral (two chamber) parliamentary system. The DPD must be made effective to ensure an effective system of checks and balances," he told a discussion sponsored by the Ridep Institute and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) here on Thursday.
Syamsuddin said the constitutional amendment was quite urgent in order that the DPD could play a role in overcoming the backlog of bills in the House and to review controversial laws, especially those concerning regional administration and others on special autonomy in conflict-affected provinces such as Papua and Aceh.
"To have an effective DPD, the number of regional representatives should be increased to that of DPR members from the current 128, while their legislative and budgetary rights and control functions should not be cut off," he said.
Marwan Batubara and Arief, two DPD members from Jakarta and West Java respectively, said all regional representatives were embarrassed because have been doing nothing for the last nine months.
Worse still, they added, the council has no concrete programs or fixed agenda for the next five years for a number of reasons, mainly because of the small size of the DPD and its limited rights and functions.
Marwan said the conflict between the DPD and the House emerged when the DPD was not involved in the recent review of the 2005 state budget and the listing of bills for deliberation over the next five years.
"The conflict reached its peak when the House rejected a proposed joint session between DPD and the House, in which the President is scheduled to deliver his Independence Day speech and propose the 2006 state budget," he said.
After long political negotiations, President Susilo Bambang eventually agreed to attend a DPD plenary session scheduled for Aug. 23, 2005.
Constitutional law experts Sri Sumantri and Satya Arinanto said the DPD should be creative in organizing events to show its existence in an attempt to win the hearts of the people since it was impossible to amend the constitution at present.
"An amendment to the Constitution looks impossible at present because it will be absolutely opposed by the powerful House. The DPD only has 128 members and this number is not sufficient to put forward a constitutional amendment," Sri said.
He said that under article 37 of the Constitution, amendments can only be put forward if supported by at least one third of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) members.
Support for constitutional change also came from Soejati Djiwandono, from the Ridep, who said the amendment could be undertaken some time in the next five or 10 years to strengthen the DPD.