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

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.