On annual session of MPR

On annual session of MPR

The annual session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR)
is only weeks away now. Debates of MPR members on crucial matters
regarding the fourth amendment to 1945 Constitution are still
going on. Take, for example, the presidential election. Although
it has been agreed upon that the direct election system will be
adopted, the technical agreement is yet to be reached. It is yet
to be agreed upon, for example, still a question mark whether in
the second round the election must be repeated or whether this
matter must be left to the political mechanism at the MPR if no
president is elected in the first round.

Unless a consensus is reached right now on the crucial matters
regarding the fourth amendment to the 1945 Constitution, there is
fear that this amendment may come to a deadlock. If this happens,
the reform agenda cannot proceed because the 2004 general
election cannot be held pending the stipulation of the law on the
general election. Without this general election law, there will
be no legal foundation on which the General Election Commission
will base its activities. Obviously, the impact will be adverse
to national security and political stability. Protest rallies
coupled with anarchism and friction involving elements of the
community will come to the fore.

We, laymen, can only hope that the national political elite in
the MPR will prioritize national interest over their own. Please
don't turn the fourth amendment a political commodity for horse
trading practices. Find a political consensus through
deliberation in keeping with the Pancasila political mechanism.

SUTISNA ATMAJA

Tangerang, Banten