Powerless Council

Powerless Council

It began on a high note. When the third amendment was made to
the 1945 Constitution, the bicameral political system was adopted
through the introduction of the Regional Representatives Council
(DPD) in addition to the House of Representatives. It was
imagined at that time that a system would be introduced similar
to the United States, where people are represented by the House
of Representatives and the Senate.

In 2004, members of the House of Representatives were elected
and, for the first time, regional representatives were picked for
the DPD. Unlike House members, DPD members are directly elected,
and many of them are not affiliated with any political party. So,
in theory, DPD members are closer to being actual representatives
of the people than House members.

However, in its development, it was realized that our
bicameral system was far from perfect and that the DPD members
were in truth toothless. Unlike the Senate in the United States,
the DPD has no legislative power. Its only "power" is, together
with the House, deliberating bills addressing regional issues,
and providing recommendations to the House on bills on state
budgets, taxes, education and religion. Other than that, the DPD
has no voice.

The powerlessness of the DPD was most apparent when the House
flatly rejected the DPD's request to sit together with the House
to hear President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Aug. 16 state of the
nation address. Then, the DPD held on Tuesday its own plenary
meeting, which President Susilo -- apparently in a consolatory
gesture -- also attended.

For many people, the DPD meeting on Tuesday was meaningless,
other than its promotion of batik -- all DPD members and guests
were wearing batik garments. But the meeting itself had no clear
agenda, nor direction. It is true that the DPD is required by the
Constitution to assemble in a meeting at least once a year.
However, what purpose does it serve to come together for a
plenary meeting just for the sake of meeting the constitutional
obligation, when there is no clear agenda or direction?

So far, nothing has been heard from the DPD about its plans
for next year, let alone the next five years. At the same time,
pressing problems related to regional issues are on the rise.
Where does the DPD stand and how will it act on issues related to
Aceh, Papua, and most recently the uneven distribution of wealth
that has resulted from the increasing revenue sharing of rich
regions as a consequence of soaring oil prices?

If the DPD wants to use the momentum, it can wield its "power"
to help the government and the Acehnese make the Aceh peace
agreement work by facilitating the amendment of the Aceh special
autonomy law, in accordance with the agreement.

Also, the DPD should run with Susilo's suggestions on revenue
sharing. Susilo called on oil- and gas-producing regions enjoying
windfall revenue from soaring oil prices to share their wealth
for the development of public services in poor regions. It is
likely that no rich region will heed the President's call.
Therefore, the best way to address this problem is to distribute
the central government's block grants -- the General Allocation
Fund (DAU) -- only to regions that are not benefiting from
revenue sharing from oil and gas. So far, all regions, including
those oil and gas producing regions, receive the block grants,
although their portion might be smaller than the poorer regions.
Here, the DPD can take a position, and play a role, if it wishes,
by making recommendations to the House regarding the allocation
of the block grants in the 2006 state budget.

Thus, if its recommendations to the House are not taken up,
the turndown should be made public. That way, the DPD could win
popular support for its ultimate goal: the fifth amendment of the
Constitution, to empower the DPD. It is advisable for the DPD to
work toward the constitutional amendment. Otherwise, the DPD will
remain powerless and useless. However, going it alone would also
be fruitless as the DPD -- with 128 members -- is just too small
to initiate any amendment. Therefore, the people are waiting for
the DPD to show that it is deserving of support.