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of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra said that almost 70 percent of the bill's contents were either outdated or contradictory to the amended Constitution.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.