MPR: State Policy Guidelines Intended to Guide Development Across Presidential Terms

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Taufik Basari, chairman of the MPR RI Commission on Constitutional Affairs, said the State Policy Guidelines (pokok-pokok haluan negara, or PPHN) are intended to provide principles for long-term development that can guide presidents across successive terms in office.

“They are a set of guiding principles so that each president leading the country does not have a different plan of their own. They are, in essence, long-term guidance,” said Basari, who is commonly known as Tobas, after a PPHN meeting at the parliamentary complex in Jakarta on Monday.

He said the PPHN are expected to guide presidents in carrying out development, so that the country’s development direction is not based solely on the agenda of each individual president.

Tobas said the substance of the PPHN should focus on development principles, rather than technical instructions, which are the domain of legislation.

For example, he said, principles for conducting elections that are honest and fair and do not generate high political costs could be included in the PPHN. Rules on how to achieve those aims, however, would be dealt with through legislation.

Nevertheless, Tobas said the need for the PPHN still required further study, taking into account input from various parties, including the public.

On the guidelines’ legal form, Tobas said discussions within the MPR were tending towards an MPR decree, although no final decision had been made.

He added that the MPR leadership hoped the PPHN would be completed by 2027. However, he stressed that the process should involve the public widely so that the guidelines would not become merely a decision by the political elite.

“Even if it is decided that we should have the PPHN, they belong to the people, not to the political elites currently in the MPR,” he said.