House to annul Law no.5/1985

JAKARTA (JP): The final legal barrier to widely demanded amendments to the country's 1945 Constitution is soon to be cleared by removing a law requiring a referendum to determine whether changes may be made.

On Monday Commission II for home affairs at the House of Representatives and acting Minister of Home Affairs Feisal Tanjung -- also the Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security -- began deliberating a draft law seeking to annul Law no. 5/1985 on the referendum.

The House is slated to pass the draft law on March 1 after a scheduled two-day deliberation. The draft law consists only of two articles, stating the revocation of the previous law and the immediate effectiveness of the new law.

Legislator Robbani Thoha of the United Development Party (PPP) told The Jakarta Post that the draft law was simply "a death certificate" to the previous 1985 law.

In November the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) had already revoked an MPR Decree regulating the referendum.

In his address to the draft law deliberation meeting Feisal said the referendum law had caused "judicial redundancy" as Indonesia does not adhere to the principle of a direct democracy state.

All the four House factions -- PPP, the Armed Forces, Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) -- also said that a referendum was not recognized by the Constitution.

Amendments simply need the backing of two-thirds of MPR members, as stipulated in Article 37 of the Constitution.

Observers have said this was made impossible through the law on referendums; they argued the founding fathers installed the article on amendments in light of the hurried circumstances in which the Constitution was drawn up for the newborn republic.

The 1985 referendum law was seen as part and parcel of the much criticized five political laws which include the law on elections, on political parties, on Golkar and the mass organization, and on the structure and position of the MPR/DPR.

Last month the other four laws were revoked and altered by three new political laws regulating the elections, political parties and the composition of the MPR/DPR as well as the provincial and regency councils.

Among the most disputed articles of the constitution are those on the presidency and the presidential term, the House, the Supreme Court and the human rights of citizens.

Scholars and observers have cited loopholes in the constitution which allow for abuse of power.

Talk of amendment itself, together with debates of the Pancasila state ideology, were considered taboo under former president Soeharto, and anybody doing so faced risks of being labeled subversive.

In an off-the-cuff speech before the military rank and file in March 1980 in Pekanbaru, Soeharto said that "rather than use arms to face down changes to the 1945 Constitution and Pancasila, we had better kidnap one of the two-thirds of MPR members who intend to make the change".

A group of 50 respected public figures criticized Soeharto over his speeches such as this one, charging that the then president was labeling any critic of his as being against the Constitution and the state ideology.

Led by former Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin, the group called Petisi 50 were then made political outcasts. (aan)