Lessons in the past for a new constitution

Lessons in the past for a new constitution

By Lambert Giebels

This is the first of two articles on the inception of the
Indonesian Constitution.

BREDA, The Netherlands (JP): Revision of the country's
Constitution, one of the demands of university students
demonstrating against Soeharto's three-decade presidency earlier
this year, will inevitably resuscitate issues which played a role
in its inception in 1945.

The 1945 Constitution was drafted in haste. Towards the end of
the Japanese rule, the military command in Java formed a
committee to prepare for an independent Indonesian nation.

The committee, which consisted only of representatives from
Java, met for the first time on May 28, 1945. Three full days
were spent arguing and in dead-end discussions. Then on June 1,
Sukarno took the floor and gave his famous address in which he
proposed Pancasila, the five pillars or principles on which the
Indonesian state should be based. The five principles comprised
of a belief in one supreme God, nationalism, international
humanism, consensual democracy and social justice for all. The
members of the committee welcomed Sukarno's proposal
enthusiastically and with loud applause.

A Constitutional committee was formed under Sukarno's
chairmanship to work out the details of Pancasila. Sukarno's team
then submitted a number of issues which needed consideration to a
plenary meeting of the committee set up to prepare for
independence.

One of these issues concerned the territories of the planned
state. The majority of participants in the meeting proposed that
the territories should include the former Malacca (currently
called Malaysia and Singapore), the Portuguese colony of eastern
Timor, British-ruled areas of Borneo and all of New Guinea,
besides the territories of the Dutch East Indies.

Another issue, on the planned form of government, led to a
debate between Sukarno, who wanted a Unitarian state, and
Mohammad Hatta, who preferred a federal state. The majority opted
for a Unitarian state.

The most difficult issue to decide upon was whether Indonesia
should become an Islamic state. After ample consideration, a
compromise was reached which became known as the Jakarta Charter.
The compromise implied that Indonesian Moslems (nominally 90
percent of the population) would be obliged to observe Islamic
law and that only a Moslem could become president of the country.

After these crucial decisions had been made, Sukarno's
committee were able to focus discussion on the drafting of the
Constitution. For that purpose, an editorial committee was
appointed under the chairmanship of Soepomo, a Leiden-educated
lawyer.

Soepomo told his fellow committee members that there were
three state ideologies -- liberalism, Marxism and a convergence
of the two. He rejected liberalism because this would stimulate
individual egoism and Marxism because it would stimulate group
egoism.

According to the minutes of the meeting, he summarized his
vision as follows: "The state should be neither the protector of
individuals nor groups. It should be the organized community
itself." He won applause from the meeting.

Never has a constitution been so energetically drafted as by
Soepomo. In only one day he prepared and submitted a draft
constitution. His concept was accepted by the committee on July
16 with only a few minor amendments.

However,the work of the constitutional committee was under a
threat of being overtaken by the course of world events. On Aug.
7, one day after the United States dropped an atom bomb on the
Japanese city of Hiroshima, Sukarno and Hatta were summoned to
the headquarters of Japan's Southern Armies in Saigon. The
commander in chief there, Count Terauchi, informed them that the
Japanese emperor planned to allow Indonesia to commence
preparations for independence.

Terauchi announced the establishment of a preparatory
committee which would consist of representatives from throughout
Indonesia under the chairmanship of Sukarno. He also announced
that the planned independence would be restricted to the
territories of the Dutch East Indies and that the new state would
be a federal one.

On Aug. 14, Sukarno and Hatta carried that news back to
Jakarta. Time was short because the Allies had presented an
ultimatum to Japan and the Soviet Union after attacking the
vassal state of Mansyu-Koku in Japan. The next day, Japan
capitulated.

Under pressure from youths (who abducted Sukarno and Hatta on
Aug. 16), Sukarno declared Indonesia independent in the front
garden of his house at 10:00 a.m. on Aug. 17. The following day,
the preparatory committee elected Sukarno president and Hatta
vice president. The Constitution was adopted on that same day.

All these incidents took place in the nick of time. On Aug.
19, the Japanese commander on Java informed Sukarno and Hatta
that he had been instructed by Tokyo, in conformance with terms
laid down by the Allies, to sustain the status quo in Japanese-
occupied territories. This meant that the preparatory committee
initiated by Japan had to be dissolved.

Before the Constitution was proclaimed on Aug. 18, a few
important amendments to its original concept were made. For
example, the initial preamble in the original constitution
contained an ode to Japan and an elegy to 300 years of colonial
suppression. Both passages were deleted. What remained was the
rousing sentence: "Freedom is the right of all peoples and
therefore the colonial system in the world must be abolished."

This statement was followed by an outline of the concept of
Pancasila already formulated by Sukarno. In view of Terauchi's
instruction, the idea of a Greater Indonesia was dropped.
However, the idea of a Unitarian state was retained.

The most important amendment made on Aug. 18 was the scrapping
of conditions intended to secure the presidency for Moslems and
prevent them from turning away from their religion. These
conditions were scrapped for an urgent reason. Hatta had heard
rumors that non-Moslem areas in the archipelago had refused to
join a possible Moslem state. He immediately saw the danger --
Christian areas such as the Moluccas, Flores, Minahasa, the Batak
lands in Sumatra and the Hindu island of Bali might seek their
fortune with the Netherlands. After hasty consultation with
Moslem leaders, the preparatory committee decided to drop the two
conditions.

The 1945 Constitution shows the influence of various
constitutional perceptions.

American influence can be seen in the presidential system.
Under the Constitution, the president is commander in chief of
the Armed Forces, can declare war and peace and has the
prerogative right to appoint and dismiss ministers who are
answerable to him alone. The American constitution states that
the sovereignty of the people is embodied in Congress, while the
Indonesian Constitution stipulates that the peoples' sovereignty
lies in the hands of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

The MPR, which convenes at least once every five years,
appoints a president and vice president and determines the state
policy guidelines which should be implemented by the country's
executive body in the ensuing five years.

The Constitution does not explicitly state that the MPR can
dismiss the president, but this seems to be implied by the fact
that it is responsible for making the appointing in the first
place. The president for his part cannot dissolve the MPR. When
Soeharto stepped down and appointed Habibie as his successor, he
referred to a section of the Constitution which states: "In case
of becoming deceased, resigning or ineptitude in fulfilling his
task, the president will be replaced by the vice president to the
end of his term in office," -- an article which again bears a
resemblance to parts of the American constitution.

Some influence of the Dutch constitution is revealed by the
adoption of a decentralized Unitarian state. This is a state in
which the local authorities (in provinces, regencies and
municipalities) have a certain degree of autonomy, under the
supervision of the central government. These devolution of power
lead Hatta to give up his objections to a Unitarian state.

The writer is a Dutch historian who is now in the process of
writing a biography on the life of Indonesia's first president
Sukarno to be published by the end of next year.

Window: Never has a constitution been so energetically drafted as
by Soepomo. In only one day he prepared and submitted a draft
constitution. His concept was accepted by the committee on July
16 with only a few minor amendments.