Mega complains about DPR's powers

Mega complains about DPR's powers

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Kuta, Bali

President Megawati Soekarnoputri expressed concern on Monday over
the increasing powers of the House of Representatives, saying
that it had virtually changed the country's government from a
presidential to a parliamentarian system.

"From both the theoretical and empirical perspectives, cutting
down the president's authority to produce legislation, and
handing that over to the House, is an understandable thing.

"However, behind those understandable steps, all of sudden we
feel how everything has became so blurred. The country's
government system, which in its original design was based on the
presidential system, and still is according to the 1945
Constitution, has, in practice, displayed the characteristics of
the parliamentarian system," Megawati said when opening the 8th
National Seminar on the Development of Law in Denpasar, Bali.

This phenomenon, according to Megawati, had lessened the
effectiveness of the execution of the president's directives.

A few moments before she hit the gong to officially open the
five day-seminar, Megawati told seminar participants that she was
not feeling well. She then asked Minister of Justice and Human
Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra to read her speech.

Following the downfall of former dictator Soeharto in May
1998, the House changed from a rubber-stamp institution to a
powerful body that controls virtually all institutions in the
country, including the office of the president.

In the newly endorsed bill on the composition of the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR), the House, and the Regional
Representatives Council (DPD), the House has been vested with the
right to order police authorities to detain anyone who refuses to
meet a House summons.

Megawati said the confusion reflected the existence of a wide
gap between the hopes the people had in the reform process and
the realities they face.

"Through reform we want to achieve the dynamic balance in the
relationship between state institutions, particularly between the
President, the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court,"
she said.

"We admit that the judicial authority has now became a free
and independent authority, and even an authority without
supervision. This authority will in turn encourage the birth of
an authority which is a menace to freedom itself," she said.

Responding to the President's speech, former minister of
justice Muladi said her concern over the growing power of the
House was justified.

"The President has expressed that concern to me before. She
complained about the fact that a bill automatically becomes law
in 30 days after the House endorses it, regardless of whether the
President signs it or not," Muladi said.

Some bills, including the one of broadcasting, became law 30
days after they were endorsed by the House despite the fact that
they had not been signed by Megawati.

Muladi said the planned constitutional court should study and
find an acceptable solution to the problems -- a solution that
would enable the President to perform her duties effectively and
at the same time maintain the adequate check-and-balance
mechanism between the President and the House.

The newly amended Constitution has given the government until
Aug. 17 to establish a constitutional court to settle, among
others, constitutional disputes.

The commission then recommended that solution to the MPR, the
highest legislative body, which, according to Muladi, has the
authority and legitimacy to solve the problem.

"Apparently the House's portion (of power and authority) is
too much, such that the government feels that it is being
obstructed," Muladi told.

"This problem is the result of a reform process that has gone
a bit too far," he said.