Experts urge legislators to revoke MPRS decree

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gravity of laws and decrees, should be rescinded in the special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)