No need for President to join MPR Annual Session: Yusril
No need for President to join MPR Annual Session: Yusril
The Jakarta Post, Surabaya/Yogyakarta
President Megawati Soekarnoputri could skip the Annual Session of
the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) this coming August as
she will not be accountable to the Assembly once the 1945
Constitution is amended, a minister said on Monday.
Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra, who
is also a constitutional law expert, said the Assembly, under the
amended Constitution, would not be in charge of upholding the
people's mandate.
The third amendment stipulates that the Assembly's duty is
only to amend the 1945 Constitution and to impeach the president.
"The President (Megawati Soekarnoputri) can skip the annual
progress report to the Assembly, since she is no longer obligated
whatsoever to the MPR," Yusril said at the Sukolilo Asrama Haji
dormitory in Surabaya, during the ongoing congress of the
Muhammadiyah Youth (PP).
Yusril was speaking about the upcoming Annual Session of the
MPR next month.
"Now, realizing that the Assembly will lose its authority, the
legislators are trying to re-enact the MPR's several fields of
responsibility through a provisional ruling in the next
amendment," Yusril said.
"This is just constitutionally ridiculous. We are facing a
constitutional crisis if the MPR continues to push its interests
without any regard to the principles of the law," he added.
Yusril said he was not speaking as the Minister of Justice and
Human Rights, but as a expert on constitutional law.
On presidential elections, Yusril, who is also the chairman of
the Crescent Star Party (PBB), said that the party believed
that if the first round of elections failed to yield a
majority, then a second round should be held within the Assembly.
"If we have to hold a second election, there would be a
leadership vacuum for quite some time and the political and
economic costs would be huge. Politically speaking, the risk of
delaying poll results would be very dangerous," Yusril said.
Yusril's position is the same as Megawati's in the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan). The Indonesian
Military/Police faction at the MPR and the interest groups
faction also support PDI Perjuangan's position.
Meanwhile, other factions, including the former ruling Golkar
Party faction, the National Awakening Party and the National
Mandate Party factions, are in favor of a second election.
In the next Annual Session, Yusril said his faction would
continue to fight for the adoption of Islamic law in the
Constitution.
Meanwhile, another constitutional law expert, Adnan Buyung
Nasution, said in Yogyakarta on Monday that the MPR must complete
its fourth amendment of the Constitution.
The most important element of the fourth amendment would be
that on the direct presidential election, and therefore the
Assembly must reach an agreement on this crucial issue, he said.
Political analyst Ichlasul Amal from Gadjah Mada University
concurred and said that the Assembly must let the public elect
their president.
To avoid a second presidential election, Amal suggested that
the pair of presidential and vice presidential candidates with
the most votes should be declared the winner.
"A 50-percent-plus-one outcome in this case is not necessary,"
he said, adding that a presidential candidate winning with less
than 40 percent of the vote could be installed as president.