House refuse to revise presidency bill alone
House refuse to revise presidency bill alone
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The House of Representatives (DPR) will not succumb to pressure
from the government for it to revise the bill on presidency, a
senior lawmaker says.
"The President should just assign a minister as soon as
possible to start the deliberation and explain the government's
objection during the debate," the House's Legislation Body
(Baleg) chairman Zain Badjeber told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
He said the government should not just criticize the flaws it
claimed were apparent in the bill, but make action of its words
by presenting its own draft.
The legislators, he said, would not revise the presidency bill
without the presence of the government's representatives.
Baleg member Baharuddin Aritonang agreed with Zain, saying the
debate on the changes to the bill should involve the government.
Both Zain and Baharuddin were commenting on the government's
refusal to discuss the presidency bill unless it was overhauled.
After a meeting with President Megawati Soekarnoputri on
Wednesday last week, Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril
Ihza Mahendra said that almost 70 percent of the bill's contents
were either outdated or contradictory to the amended
Constitution.
Yusril, State Secretary Bambang Kesowo, and State Minister for
Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamin have been asked by President
Megawati Soekarnoputri to represent the government during the
bill debate. The ministers will officially inform the House of
the refusal.
The House submitted the presidency bill to the President at
the end of 2001. The government's refusal will crush the House's
hopes of endorsing a presidency law before the country's first
directly elected president begins to serve his or her term.
Politicians are now focusing on the elections, a process that may
end in October.
According to Indonesia's legal system, the making of a
legislation rests with the House, but the deliberation of the
bill requires the government's involvement.
Zain emphasized that the House members were ready to revise
the presidency bill. However, the changes would take place with
the presence of the designated ministers.
"We will not do the revision alone. We will make it during
deliberation with the ministers," he added.
He said the deliberation of the Constitutional Court (MK) bill
in August last year had set a precedence when the government,
despite its objection to the bill, had agreed to start
deliberation at the House. The objection was announced during the
debate.
In an attempt to prove the House was ready to revise the bill,
Zain said that legislators would incorporate articles on the
selection of the Cabinet and the presidential advisory
institution.