MPR hammers out agreement on outdated decrees

MPR hammers out agreement on outdated decrees

M. Taufiqurrahman
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

The People's Consultative Assembly working committee agreed on
Wednesday on the wording of a draft decree revoking more than 100
obsolete decrees, including the one on the impeachment of the
late President Sukarno.

In a last preparatory meeting for the annual session,
scheduled to take place between Aug. 1 and Aug. 10, members of
the committee unanimously endorsed the final draft of the decree,
which was presented by ad hoc committee II.

The latest version of the draft decree states that MPR Decree
No. 25/1966 on the dissolution of the Indonesian Communist Party
(PKI) will be revoked. However, the ban on Marxism and Communism
will be maintained given their incompatibility with the state
ideology Pancasila.

There are only eight decrees that will be scrapped
unconditionally, including MPR Decree No. 6/1973 on the structure
and composition of the highest law-making body and high state
institutions, and MPR Decree No. 13/1998, which limits the number
of presidential terms that may be served. The amended
Constitution already restricts a president's tenure to two five-
year periods at the most.

The MPR also plans to revoke some of its decrees after a new
government is formed following the 2004 general election. These
include controversial Decree No. 4/2000 on regional autonomy and
Decree No. 2/2002 on the acceleration of economic recovery.

Chairman of the ad hoc committee Rambe Kamarulzaman said that
the draft decree would be presented to the assembly's annual
session for approval.

A constitutional law expert, Sri Soemantri, said that
revocation of the obsolete decrees would not automatically annul
laws that used the decrees as their basis.

He said that once a law was enacted there was no way to annul
it, unless a new law was issued to replace it or revoke it.

"In the 1950's, there were a lot of laws and government
regulations made under provisional Constitution, but after it was
revoked these laws still continued in effect. The most important
thing is the content of a law, whether or not it contradicts the
state Constitution," he told The Jakarta Post.

During Wednesday's meeting, the working committee also agreed
on the draft decree on the establishment of the constitutional
commission, which will carry out a comprehensive review of the
amendments made to the 1945 Constitution between 1999 and 2002.

The commission will consist of 31 members, be appointed by the
MPR working committee and be accountable to the highest law-
making body.

The commission's mandate will only last for six months after
its establishment.

Apart from the high-profile issues, BP MPR also approved the
schedule of the annual session.

All the 700 Assembly members will stay at the Mulia Hotel,
near the national legislative complex in Senayan, Central
Jakarta.

During past annual sessions, Assembly members stayed at
different venues based on their political affiliations.

The annual session will cost taxpayers Rp 20 billion (US$2.4
million).