MPR urged to share amending role with public

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.