MPR, don't waste time

MPR, don't waste time

As a graduate of the constitutional law department, School of
Law, University of Indonesia, Depok, Jakarta, I am surprised to
find that there are so many draft decrees which the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR) Working Committee will discuss
(Kompas Sept. 2, 1998).

In this reform era, I believe we must return to the 1945
Constitution. According to the constitution, the MPR is
authorized only to stipulate the broad lines of the State Policy
Giudelines (GBHN) and the constitution (article 3), elect the
president and the vice president (article 6, paragraph 2), and to
amend the constitution (article 37). Therefore, it is clear that
the authority of the MPR is very limited.

True to its nature, a constitution restricts things when it is
accepted. The MPR does not have the authority to regulate matters
not clearly defined in the constitution. Therefore, it is not
authorized to issue decrees which seek to regulate things such as
the procedure for the election of the president and the vice
president, the working procedure in the relationship between the
state's highest institutions and between the state's high
institutions, the organization of a general election and so
forth, including the MPR regulations of conduct.

The MPR is the holder of sovereignty. So when it convenes, it
will stipulate its own working procedure pursuant to article 2
paragraph 3 of the 1945 Constitution, which stipulates that an
MPR decree must be taken by a vote of majority. Therefore, all
MPR decrees which contain regulations must, by law, be canceled
or must, from the very beginning, be considered as nonexistent.
The power to regulate further stipulations laid down in the
constitution must be granted by the law (General Elucidation of
point IV of the 1945 Constitution).

The MPR is also not authorized to confer titles and medals of
merit because it is firmly stipulated in article 15 of the
constitution that "the President confers titles, medals of merit
and other tokens of honor". So, the conferment of the title
Father of Development on Soeharto, Indonesia's second president,
by the MPR is not valid because the MPR is not authorized to do
so. In the same way, it is not in place to make a proposal for
the conferment of Reform Heroes through an MPR decree because the
authority to do so rests with the president.

As for the investigation into the assets of former president
Soeharto, this will be the job of law-enforcement apparatuses.
The Habibie administration must take the initiative and have
enough guts to examine the assets of former president Soeharto.

The items in the agenda of the extraordinary session of the
MPR are, therefore, confined to only the stipulation of the broad
lines of the GBHN and the constitution, the election of the
president and the vice president and the amendment to the
constitution. The MPR should not waste time and money on things
beyond its authority. It must be seen to that the MPR does not
exceed its own authority because once it deviates from the
constitution, it will be impossible for us to expect that state
institutions of a level below the MPR will implement the
constitution.

PAUSTINUS SIBURIAN

Jakarta