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