NGOs reject the work of the Constitutional Commission

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta

Just two days before it has to present its work to the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the Constitutional Commission came under fire for not synchronizing articles of the Constitution.

A number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), grouped under the Coalition for the New Constitution, said on Tuesday the commission had not upgraded the Constitution.

"There are contradictions and inconsistencies in the academic draft proposed by the commission," said Firmansyah Arifin from the National Consortium for Legal Reform (KRHN).

The coalition, which consists of 32 NGOs, concluded the Constitutional Commission had lost the momentum to create guidelines for the development of democracy in the country.

Joining the rally were Smita Notosusanto of the Center for Electoral Reform (CETRO), Binny Buchori of the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), Usman Hamid from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Husna of the Indonesian Women's Coalition (KPI), and Bambang Harymurti, the chief editor of Tempo magazine.

They also criticized the Constitutional Commission for not allowing the public to participate in the process of synchronizing articles of the Constitution.

They said the Constitutional Commission had not clarified that the MPR would no longer be a permanent legislative body, but simply a joint forum between the House of Representatives (DPR) and the Regional Representatives Council (DPD).

The Constitutional Commission was also criticized for proposing that presidential candidates would only need a simple majority vote to win.

Under the current system, a presidential candidate and his or her running mate must win more than 50 percent of the votes, which are distributed among at least 16 provinces, with at least 20 percent of the votes in each province.

The coalition of NGOs said this would only encourage more candidates to contest the presidential race. If that happened, a candidate that gained 20 percent of the votes could be declared the winner, despite a lack of legitimacy.

Meanwhile, Bambang Harymurti focused his criticism on the Constitutional Commission's decision to remove the article on press freedom from the Constitution.

Earlier, the commission had included an article to protect the freedom of the press in the Constitution, which it later removed.

"There are signs of a strong tendency to again take away the freedom of the press, which would be dangerous," he added.

The coalition suggested the MPR reject the works of the Constitutional Commission and establish an independent commission assigned to draft a new constitution.

The Constitutional Commission was set up in October last year to assess and synchronize the amendments made by the MPR to the Constitution, which many said were inconsistent and the result of short-term political interests.

The 31-member Constitutional Commission was also criticized for the absenteeism of its members.