Modern, comprehensive constitution remains a dream

Pandaya, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

During the course of the 32 year despotic New Order regime under Soeharto, the 1945 Constitution functioned like the holy scriptures.

Only the state had the "right" interpretation of the document's rambling contents, the weakest point of the 57 year- old constitution. Anybody daring to question the state on constitutional matters was subject to harassment or even prosecution for subversion.

Last month, Amien Rais, a staunch critic of Soeharto and speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), came up with an unusually good metaphor for the outdated constitution.

"The 1945 Constitution is a priceless piece of heritage from Indonesia's founding fathers. Like a house, which should not be left worn out without our renovating touch, we have to renovate it, replacing the weathered beams, the leaky roof tiles and repainting it so that the building will shine again."

The statement came in November as Amien addressed the MPR annual session, which had placed constitutional reform high on its agenda.

This all sounded promising but the nine-day session that cost Rp 18 billion in taxpayers' money was a big disappointment as far as constitutional amendments were concerned.

Although the political factions in the MPR managed to make amendments on some crucial issues, they failed to agree on what to do if, under a direct election system, none of the presidential candidates managed to win more than 50 percent of the vote.

They were similarly indecisive about the proposal to adopt an American-style bicameral parliamentary system, in which all members would have to be elected. Such a system, under which the legislature would consist only of party and regional representatives, could be expected to improve the level of representation in parliament.

They promised to complete the amendment process when they convene next year, a decision that cast uncertainty over the reform agenda.

The MPR, the country's highest law-making body, wasted an opportunity to make history by revamping the 1945 Constitution and paving the way for political reforms and democratization.

With the help of 29 experts, the MPR managed to amend the constitution considerably but postponed until next year some crucial issues related to direct presidential elections.

The MPR had betrayed the ideals of reform that activists and, indeed, everybody who believed in democracy had yearned for since the authoritarian Soeharto fell in disgrace in May 1998.

It let the public down by introducing amendments without almost any public participation. It relied on a team of experts and ignored non-governmental organization (NGO) activists' demands for an Independent Constitutional Commission.

What many democracy activists want is a brand new constitution -- not just a patching up of the 1945 Constitution drafted in a hurry when Indonesia was in its infancy.

They demanded an independent constitutional commission consisting of a broad spectrum of representation, from experts, local figures, professionals, but not politicians, so that the commission would be free from vested interests.

The MPR's role could be to accept or reject the draft that the independent commission proposed.

But politicians, including Amien, who were once tagged as champions of reformasi, turned their backs on the NGOs. They insisted that amending the Constitution was the MPR's prerogative.

The politicians' fear of losing the authority to amend the constitution is not well-founded because it would have the power to accept or reject the draft proposed by the commission.

The annual session was also a show of inconsistency. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) was among those that flatly rejected the idea of even discussing the constitutional commission.

This is interesting because the idea of establishing a constitutional commission came from President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who is the chairwoman of PDI Perjuangan.

The fight for constitutional reform is far from over and the reform-minded are far from satisfied with the progress made to date. What the MPR has done is to simply patch up the current, old-fashioned constitution rather than designing a new, modern and comprehensive one to take its place.

Next year, they promise, the constitutional 'patch-up' will be completed. But it will still be entirely the politicians' version--which is packed with vested interests.

The reform agenda: * 1945 Constitutional amendment * law enforcement * end to military's political role * regional autonomy * clean governance * democracy.