House to use recess to debate crucial bill

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives has expressed optimism that it will endorse the bill on the constitutional court on time to meet the deadline set by the amended Constitution.

Chairman of the House special committee appointed to deliberate the bill Zein Badjeber said the committee would likely use the recess scheduled for July 1 until August 14 to discuss the bill.

Zein was responding to President Megawati Soekarnoputri's recent letter to the House, asking the House not to rush the bill. The President also appointed Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yuzril Ihsa Mahendra and Attorney General MA Rachman to represent the government during the deliberation.

Zein said the deliberation would begin on June 24 and the special committee would have almost two months before its endorsement scheduled for Aug. 17.

"We will start deliberating the bill on June 24, and we will have adequate time to ensure the nation has a good law on the constitutional court," he said here on Thursday.

A transitory provision in the amended Constitution stipulates that the constitutional court must be established by Aug. 17, 2003.

According to the Constitution, the constitutional court has the authority to try those who commit election violations and to dissolve political parties and state institutions.

Zein conceded that the House was late in deliberating the bill submitted by the government last year because it had spent a greater part of its time to deliberate political bills including the bill on presidential election which will be endorsed soon.

Special committee deputy chairman Zainal Arifin, also a legislator of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), concurred saying his committee was seeking approval from the House leadership for all commission members to suspend the recess in order to deliberate the bill.

Meanwhile, Golkar faction chairman Marzuki Achmad said his faction would back a move to use the recess to deliberate the bill in effort to make a quality law.

The special committee currently deliberating the presidential election bill, also suspended their recess in April for the same purpose.

The House standard orders require legislators to regularly visit their constituents when the House is in recess.

Zein said two months would be sufficient for his special committee to complete the deliberation because in the bill's 10 chapters and 95 articles, there were no contentious issues.

He said that a possible debate among committee members and the government would be on the recruitment of judges because based on the Constitution, the President, the House, and the Supreme Court will each propose their own candidates to select nine judges to run the constitutional court. The final selection will be conducted by the House.