Ministry bill to eliminate presidential prerogative

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives has finished drafting a bill that would scrap the presidential prerogative to set up ministries if passed into law.

The bill, expected to be deliberated soon by the government and the House, will become the first law regulating the existence and basic roles of ministries in Indonesia's history, should it become law.

Due to the absence of such a law, the president has the prerogative to establish any kind of ministry, whether they be new ministries, a division or merging of previous ministries.

But if the current draft law is passed, the president will be stripped of such an exclusive right and the House will instead vote on whether or not to approve the creation or dissolution of a ministry.

The president will also need House approval to divide or combine ministries. In the case of a merger of two or more ministries, the bill says that neither of them shall be dissolved.

The bill lists a total of 19 ministries that cannot be dissolved, as these ministries are essential to the basic functioning of the administration and most of them have been listed in every Cabinet since the country's independence in 1945.

It also lists a total of 11 other non-portfolio ministries, which the President may dissolve only after approval by the House. In the current and previous administrations, these ministries have been called state ministries.

The approval or disapproval of a request to establish a new ministry must be issued at least 30 working days after the submission of the request to the House.

During the 32-year New Order regime of former president Soeharto, he was assisted by the same list of ministries.

The first dissolution of ministries took place when Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid became president in 1999 when he dissolved the Ministry of Information, Ministry of Social Affairs and Ministry of Sports, which led to protests from affected civil servants who were moved to other state agencies.

Gus Dur's successor Megawati Soekarnoputri reestablished the Ministry of Social Affairs, while the current administration maintained it and revived the information ministry.

The Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration also divided the ministry of industry and trade into two ministries.

Constitutional law expert Harun Al Rasyid from the University of Indonesia said the bill was not essential and that its deliberation would be a violation of the 1945 Constitution.

"The Constitution's fourth article clearly states that the president has the prerogative to determine everything to assist his/her administration. This prerogative of course includes how many ministries or what kind of ministries the president wants to have," he said over the weekend.

Harun said that bill proposal was due to a misperception on the part of the House and an obvious search for new powers.

"In fact, the government can refuse to deliberate the bill by saying it would violate the Constitution. Even if the bill is ever passed into law, I'm sure there will be a request for a judicial review with the Constitutional Court," said Harun.

The House, however, has argued that Article 17 of the Constitution stipulates that the creation, change, and/or dissolution of ministries must be regulated by law.

But the article does not say whether or not the House should have a role in that.

List of fixed portfolio ministries in ministry bill

1. Ministry of Home Affairs
2. Ministry of Foreign Affairs
3. Ministry of Defense
4. Ministry of Justice and Human Rights
5. Ministry of Finance
6. Ministry of Religious Affairs
7. Ministry of Education
8. Ministry of Health
9. Ministry of Social Services
10. Ministry of Agriculture and Food
11. Ministry of Forestry
12. Ministry of Transportation
13. Ministry of Industry and Trade
14. Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
15. Ministry of Public Works
16. Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration
17. Ministry of Telecommunications and Information
18. Ministry of Mining and Energy
19. Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises