MPR to set up team to amend Constitution

JAKARTA (JP): People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Amien Rais has responded positively to the proposal from President Megawati Soekarnoputri to establish an independent commission to amend the 1945 Constitution, but asserted that the commission must be under the auspice of the Assembly.

Amien asserted on Wednesday that the authority to amend the Constitution lies in the hands of the Assembly, not with the executive body and therefore, the commission must be established by the Assembly.

In fact, Amien added, the Assembly's 50-member working committee in charge of amending the Constitution has been tasked to make preparations for the proposed commission to be discussed in detail at the Assembly's annual session scheduled for Nov. 1, 2001.

"Before being brought to the annual session, the working committee will lobby all factions in the Assembly to receive input on how the commission would be established and how the amendment should be conducted," he told The Jakarta Post.

Amien said that he personally wanted the Assembly to recruit experts from various disciplines and informal leaders instead of party figures to fill the commission in order to maintain its independence.

"We have constitutional law experts, religious figures, sociologists, economists and informal leaders who understand the founding fathers' thoughts and have a good vision of Indonesia. They should be recruited in the commission," he said.

In her state-of-the-nation address on August 16, Megawati proposed the establishment of a constitutional commission to take note of people's views on an amendment and then draft the amendment comprehensively and professionally. This draft would then be reviewed and endorsed by the Assembly.

Former president Abdurrahman Wahid also proposed a similar commission, but Amien was unresponsive to the proposal at that time.

Separately, Jacob Tobing, chairman of the Assembly's ad hoc committee in charge of constitutional amendment, said Megawati's proposal to establish the commission came partly from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan)'s Assembly faction in order to prevent MPR from wasting time on technical and procedural matters.

"If the proposal is accepted and the commission is established in the November annual session, the commission will have one year until 2002 to complete its task.

"The House of Representatives will have two years until 2004 to make new laws and revise the existing laws in line with the amended Constitution so Indonesia is expected to not face any further constitutional problems as of 2004," he said.

Jacob, also a legislator of PDI Perjuangan, the political party that Megawati chairs, said he and his party would continue to maintain several fundamental issues in the Constitution, mainly the Constitution's preamble, the unitary state principle, the indirect presidential election and the current electoral system.

In contrast with Amien's proposal, Jacob suggested that the Assembly should not only recruit experts but also party figures with good ideas and a vision for Indonesia and its political system to be members of the commission.

"They (party figures) should be included in the commission to contribute their ideas and thoughts on how the Constitution should be amended comprehensively," he said.

Meanwhile, Hadar N. Gumay from the Nongovernmental Coalition for a New Constitution welcomed the plan to establish an independent constitutional commission, but he gave some advice on its establishment.

He suggested that politicians be barred from entering the commission to prevent political infighting and any amendments being based on short-term political interests. Instead, representatives from all provinces and nonpolitical groupings be included in the commission through an agreed, democratic selection process.

Then, when the commission works, it should accommodate feedback from society through various means such as seminars, surveys, polling and so on. Then, the commission should produce a draft amendment and inform the public so as to receive additional input for further improvement. The findings would then be presented to the Assembly for approval.

Hadar noted that the Assembly should not debate the draft, because it would likely end up in political infighting and compromise.

Instead, the Assembly should just approve the draft or reject it altogether. When the draft is rejected, the next step would involve returning to the beginning of the process again or by taking a referendum.

"It's true it needs a long and winding process. But if we want to have a Constitution that belongs to the people, we have to go through all these democratic processes," Hadar said. (rms/rid)