MPR members: It's time to awake from sleep!

By Kusnanto Anggoro

JAKARTA (JP): The Special Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which opened here on Nov. 10 and runs until Nov. 13, is doing everything but resolve the problems this country is facing. Many ideas and questions arising from the reform movement are not being echoed in the MPR building and by weighing up the procedural elements of the event against its substantive outputs, one quickly becomes aware that the draft decisions to be issued forth from the jamboree are no more than gimmicks.

Democracy should be all-inclusive, yet participation in preparations for the Special Session seem to have been the exclusive right of those in favor of the status quo. The offer to include reformist leaders such as Amien Rais, Megawati Soekarnoputri and Abdurrahman Wahid was too little to late.

There has only been very limited promotion of the agenda for the session and more than anything else, despite the appointment of some new members, the spirit of Soeharto's order still appears to be still alive and kicking in the MPR today.

Questions of the Armed Forces' (ABRI) dual function (dwifungsi) and Soeharto's accountability aside, there is a self- evident anti-reform tendency in the current regime, hence the widespread anxiety and suspicion surrounding the session.

Even to those who have accepted the Special Session without inquiring into its legitimacy, the draft decisions which will be made seem to be insufficient to pave the way toward further democratization.

To a certain degree, it is pleasing to see a number of contentious issues on the agenda, including discussion of human rights, reconsideration of ill-defined regional autonomy, a limitation to the number of terms a president can serve in office and continued efforts to cure the systemic corruption in our public management. But, it will require a more open and public debate to arrive upon a consensus regarding the direction of the reform movement, including democratization of the economy.

Many agree that the spirit of the New Order has survived and lingers over the session. Decisions which will be taken by the Assembly are simply too conservative to open the door to democratization.

For example, consider the proposed change to the decision making process in the MPR. No mention has been made of the transfer rights from the factions to individual members. Secret ballots, the pillar of democratic life, are nowhere mentioned in the proposals to be debated. Voting by a show of hands would be too ugly for a civilized democracy.

A free and competitive election is central to establishing democratic polity. However, it is a pity that setting a date for a general election by June 1999 at the latest is the only aspect of this whole procedure mentioned in the drafts now under debate. There is still no guarantee that a free and fair election next year will automatically accommodate the need to create a truly representative legislative branch of state power.

The session's agenda seems to be part of a grand design to bypass the ongoing controversy surrounding ABRI's presence in the House of Representatives (DPR) and the military's role in politics. Regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with the dwifungsi, on the very principles of democracy there should be more discussion of the matter. Perhaps more importantly, a rationale for next year's general election is lacking on the agenda.

The agenda should also include a draft ruling setting out the grounds for emergency elections -- a crucial point which interestingly enough is also untouched in the draft political laws being discussed in the current parliament.

Limitation to the president's tenure in office is obviously necessary and scrapping the special rights granted to the president by the MPR in March 1998 is unavoidable. The Special Session will address these points, but measures contained in the draft bills which it will debate are insufficient to create a balance between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of state power.

Not only should the Special Session redefine the relationship between these branches, it should bestow the right of judicial review upon the Supreme Court and include wider scope to limit presidential powers, including exercise of the prerogative rights outlined in Articles 10, 12, 13, 14 and 22 of the 1945 Constitution. The process of nominating presidents and vice presidents should also be subject to review and reform.

Last but not least, it appears that political learning is not in the air. The Assembly seems to have learned very little from the experience of May 21, when Soeharto handed power over to President B.J. Habibie. Articles 7 and 8 of the 1945 Constitution provide an insufficient basis for a legitimate transfer of power in this fashion and MPR decisions No. VII/1973 and No. III/1978, which bear some relevance to the matter, are in fact contradictory.

The current Special Session should therefore decide if the president must give his mandate back to the MPR or if it is indeed legitimate to hand it directly to the vice president. It must also rule on whether the president should then be made accountable to the MPR and whether the MPR must then pass approval of the new president.

By all accounts, the Assembly has yet to learn of the importance of creating a more democratic political system that is conducive to a transparent process of policy making, opens the way to accountable decision making and lays the ground for a sustainable democracy.

It will be very tenuous to claim that this Special Session has passed any legitimate decisions, regardless of how well tailored to the Constitution they may be. It has failed to absorb the aspirations of the people, particularly in its unwillingness to declare the current government transitional in nature, and this has placed the country on a dangerous footing.

Much remains to be done in the struggle for reform before the country will be able to enjoy the benefits of greater democracy. Members of the MPR, please wake up. Reformists of Indonesia, Unite! Between reform and revolution there exists an indissoluble tie.

The writer is a researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and the Institute of Policy and Community Development Studies in Jakarta. This article was written in a personal capacity and the opinions expressed therein are entirely his own.