Powerful MPR ends last session

M. Taufiqurahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The members of the 1999-2004 People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) ended their last annual session on Sunday, yielding substantial regulations that would lay the foundation for the functioning of the new Assembly early next month.

The four-day session was the final annual meeting for the current Assembly which was set up before the amendment of the 1945 Constitution, consisting of elected members from political parties and non-elected members from the Indonesian Military and the National Police, functional groups and regional representatives.

The MPR plenary meeting enacted several substantial regulations -- concerning its internal regulations and relations with the new government -- that would serve as guidelines for the new Assembly, slated for inauguration on Oct. 1.

Among the internal regulations was that the new Assembly will have the authority to rule on a proposal from the House of Representatives on the impeachment of the president.

However, the road to impeachment would be a tortuous one as the House must present a strong case against the president's wrongdoings, which would later be adjudicated by the Constitutional Court, Article 4 of the MPR Decree on internal regulations stipulates.

The long, winding road to an impeachment was one of indications that the future Assembly will no longer stand as the supreme state institution, but simply a high state institution, at the same level as the House and the Regional Representatives Council (DPD).

The Assembly will only form when the House and the DPD join in a session at least once in five years to perform its constitutional role.

Other roles for the new Assembly are to amend and enact articles in the Constitution, to install the elected president and vice president, and decide who will fill the two positions should they be left vacant.

All factions in the current Assembly agreed on articles detailing the roles, saying that such functions had been mandated by the amended Constitution.

MPR member Chozin Chumaidy said that during a closed-door meeting, representatives from all factions had unanimously accepted such an authority.

"We were engaged in a tense debate only when deciding the mechanism to elect the speaker and three deputies for the Assembly," he told The Jakarta Post.

All factions finally agreed that in the selection of the MPR speaker, both the House and the DPD will be given an equal chance to nominate three candidates.

"A plenary meeting will then hold voting and the candidate with the most votes will assume the speakership, while the three who receive the highest number of votes aside from the speaker will be declared deputy speakers," he said.

The plenary session also decided to set up an Assembly honorary council that will be tasked with probing alleged violations of the Assembly's internal regulations and code of ethics.

"This is a historic decision, as it is the first time in more than 50 years that we will have an honorary body to uphold ethics and discipline among the MPR members," said Aisyah Amini, chairwoman of the subcommission responsible for deliberating the internal regulations on the body.

The Assembly also agreed on the DPD internal regulations, under which its chairperson would be directly elected by the council members.

However, the current Assembly's hard work could easily be thrashed by the new Assembly, which will mostly consist of new faces.

"Members of the new Assembly may not use what we have drawn up. But at least we have provided some foundations for what they will do in the first days in office," Chozin said.