Experts call for empowerment of DPD

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.