MPR urged to share amending role with public

Tiarma Siboro and Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) seems to be mired in a deep dilemma.

If legislators cave in to public demands to have a say on amending the Constitution, they would dilute the long-established Assembly's authority to do so, while if they reject the call, the Assembly would be labeled as undemocratic.

Participants at a seminar reviewing the draft of the constitutional amendment repeated their calls for the establishment of a independent constitutional commission.

Constitutional observer Hasyim Djalal suggested that during its annual session in August the Assembly approve a clause recommending the establishment of a constitutional commission.

"The clause can be added to article 37 of the Constitution to accommodate the public's demand," Hasyim said at the seminar here on Friday.

Hadar N. Gumay of the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) added that the legislators should open the amendment process to public participation.

According to Hadar, if the public throughout the country were given the opportunity to participate in the amendment process it would have a sense of ownership of the Constitution, thereby forging national unity.

Cetro and dozens of non-governmental groups have been campaigning for the establishment of an independent commission since 2000, but the Assembly members have given it the cold shoulder.

Instead of adopting the idea, the Assembly empowered itself by amending article 3. The original version of the article, which says that the Assembly has the authority to enact the Constitution and the Broad Guidelines of State Policy (GBHN) has been modified to mean that the Assembly has the authority to amend and enact the Constitution.

The Assembly was also criticized for yielding a consensus among its 11 factions over five issues: first, that 11 factions agree not to amend the Preamble; second, 11 factions agree to maintain the unitary republic; third, the factions agree to keep the presidential system; fourth, the factions agree to put amended articles in an appendix; fifth, the explanation is inserted into articles of the Constitution.

Constitutional expert Ismail Suny suggested that the consensus should not be inserted into the Constitution to avoid creating future difficulties.

"To be extreme, we must not create a ruling that cannot be modified. It is the right of future generations to determine such issues," Suny added.

Two foreign experts speaking at the seminar were Sakuntala Kadirgamar of the Institute for Democratic and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) and Edward Schneier from the Colgate University, New York.

Separately, Indonesian Military (TNI) spokesman Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said on Friday that the amendment of the 1945 Constitution should aim to avoid drafting a new Constitution.

TNI expects the Assembly to respect differences of opinion of the people, maintain the concept of the unitary state as well as the presidential system, he said in a press briefing at TNI headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta.

"We (TNI) understand how important this amendment process is for the country. We also understand that the Assembly is undertaking the amendment process out of their concern to the people. But TNI insist that the process should not end up with the drafting of a new constitution which means abandoning the spirit of our founding fathers," Sjafrie said.