MPR set to revoke decrees

MPR set to revoke decrees

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A decree outlawing the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and one
on the impeachment of founding president Sukarno are among 100
rulings that could be scrapped when the People's Consultative
Assembly (MPR) convenes next month for its Annual Session.

The rulings will be revoked under a draft decree to be
proposed during the Aug. 1 to Aug. 10 Annual Session, a copy of
which was obtained by The Jakarta Post.

As for the ban on Marxism and Communism, which is mandated in
Decree No. 25/1966 on the dissolution of the PKI, the MPR plans
to maintain the ban in a new ruling.

Sukarno was impeached in 1967 for, among other things, his
perceived political favoritism toward the PKI, which was blamed
for the abortive coup in September 1965.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan),
the party of the current President and Sukarno's daughter,
Megawati Soekarnoputri, has been seeking the revocation of both
decrees.

Thousands of alleged PKI members and supporters were killed
and arrested in the aftermath of the abortive coup. The New Order
government screened all civil servants to prevent family members
of alleged PKI members from entering the bureaucracy.

Since the reform movement began in 1998, a truth and
reconciliation decree has been drafted to unravel the darker side
of Indonesia's history, including the massacre in the wake of the
September 1965 futile coup.

Currently, the MPR's ad hoc committee is deliberating a new
decree either to annul or maintain the bulk of those obsolete
decrees, enacted between 1960 and 2002.

The outcome of the deliberations will be taken to the MPR's
working committee (BP MPR) for further discussion before being
presented to the annual session, scheduled from Aug. 1 through
Aug. 10.

However, only eight of the 100 outdated decrees will be
scrapped unconditionally.

The eight will include MPR Decree No. 6/1973 on the structure
and composition of the highest law-making body and high state
institutions and their relations, as well Decree No. 13/1998,
which limits presidential terms.

Also revoked will be an MPR decree on the mechanism for the
presidential and vice presidential election, following the recent
enactment of law on a direct presidential election in 2004.

The MPR also plans to review some of its decrees after a new
government is formed following the result of the 2004 general
election.

These include controversial Decree No. 4/2000 on regional
autonomy and Decree No. 2/2002 on acceleration of the economic
recovery.

Constitutional law expert Jimly Asshiddiqie from the
University of Indonesia said that despite political bickering
between factions in the MPR ad hoc committee, the move to revoke
outdated decrees was needed to streamline the country's legal
system.

"If the MPR agrees to revoke the obsolete decrees or change
them into law, there will be no more discrepancies between the
1945 Constitution and the body of legislation. This means that it
will eliminate contradictions within our legal system," he told
the Post over the weekend.

Currently, the country's legal system still recognizes MPR
decrees as binding regulations quite apart from the 1945
Constitution and laws, but the amended 1945 Constitution scrapped
the MPR's authority to issue binding decrees, making them
irrelevant for the present legal system.

If the MPR decided not to revoke a number of decrees, then
they would be considered as law, with or without further
regulations, Jimly said.

Asked if the closed-door deliberations of the draft decree by
the ad hoc committee were merely aimed at protecting the
political interest of legislators, he said, "I think that is
common practice everywhere. What is more important is that we
have taken an important step to improve our legal system."