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However, only eight of the 100 outdated decrees will be scrapped unconditionally.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