Experts urge legislators to revoke MPRS decree

JAKARTA (JP): Legal experts urged legislators yesterday to revoke the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly (MPRS) Decree No. XX/1966, thereby paving the way for constitutional amendments.

Sri Soemantri of the Bandung-based Padjadjaran University and Koesnadi Hardjasoematri of the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University advocated that the decree, which stipulates the gravity of laws and decrees, should be rescinded in the special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) slated here for November.

They suggested the MPR should then introduce a new decree on amendments.

The decree needs to be revoked, they argued, because it placed the 1945 Constitution as the highest legal document and above any MPR decree.

Debates on changing the Constitution have been gaining momentum, with many contending that numerous failings of the past 30 years have been due to rigidly upholding the document or manipulating its contents to suit a particular end.

"We should not blame it all on our Constitution, but rather propose amendments to articles which have the potential of being interpreted by rulers to serve their abuse of power interests," Koesnadi said.

"Amendments make it possible to make the Constitution keep up with the times," he said in the seminar titled "What's Wrong with Our Country?" held by the Indonesian Society for Transparency here yesterday.

Soemantri used the U.S. as comparison. "In America, the Constitution remains unchanged, but there have been 27 amendments to date."

Soemantri maintained that any amendment to the 1945 Constitution would need both the consent of the people and a political decision from the government.

The speakers identified Article 7, on the tenure of the president, as in pressing need of amendment.

Both Soemantri and Koesnadi agreed that an amendment should limit the number of presidential terms to two.

The existing article states that a president can be "reelected after his or her presidential tenure ends", without citing a specific limit to reelections.

Many have said the article's ambiguity allowed president Soeharto to serve seven consecutive terms. (aan)