Presidential powers to pack more punch

Presidential powers to pack more punch

By Pandaya

JAKARTA (JP): The country's highest lawmaking body, the People's Consultative Assembly, is set to beef up the already powerful presidential powers despite fierce opposition from several quarters.

The five factions in the 1,000-member Assembly, dominated by President Soeharto's supporters, will formally approve the controversial decree drafted by the government-backed Golkar today.

The President, without prior consultation with the House of Representatives, will have the right to take any extraordinary measures he deems necessary to safeguard development and the nation's integrity.

The President would report on his action only after order was restored, according to Moestahid Astari, a Golkar senior legislator involved in the decree's deliberation.

Human rights advocates and intellectuals have voiced fears that the decree could be used to silence government critics and suppress peaceful protests.

The decree comes into effect as the country deals with a severe economic crisis which has triggered food riots and antigovernment student demonstrations in major cities across the country. At least five people have been killed in separate incidents in recent weeks.

The economic turmoil that began last July worsened after the International Monetary Fund would not endorse President Soeharto's intention to set up a currency board system.

Chief of sociopolitical affairs for the Armed Forces, Lt. Gen. Yunus Yosfiah, said here Friday that the widespread student demonstrations were "worrying".

Unless controlled, he warned, they could develop into violence like the July 27, 1996, riot that followed a raid on Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party headquarters by a government-backed breakaway faction.

The authorities have brought numerous people critical of the government to court on charges of defaming President Soeharto. Among the best known are former legislators Sri Bintang Pamungkas and Aberson Marle Sihaloho.

In a recent incident, three members of a group of housewives were arrested for protesting on a main Jakarta street about rising prices of basic commodities. They are currently on trial on charges of illegal demonstration and disrupting public order.

In the latest case, the hard-hitting Deteftif dan Romantika is in trouble for depicting President Soeharto as a king of spades on its cover.

Its editor-in-chief Margiono has been summoned by police to explain the picture. Last week, the Indonesian Journalists Association suspended him for two years.

Tight-lipped

Assembly members have been tight-lipped about the draft, which is said to be an amendment of a decree made for Soeharto by the 1966 Provisional Assembly. It was abolished in 1993.

When a foreign journalist asked Marwah Daud Ibrahim, a Golkar legislator, to describe the power that the decree would give to the president, she said: "It's a special power, but nobody knows what kind of power this is."

Soeharto himself asked for the decree's revival. He made the request when addressing the 500 legislative candidates in Bogor, West Java, last year. Golkar and ABRI campaigned to grant the President's request, despite initial weak resistance from the United Development Party.

Sudomo, a longtime Soeharto confidant who chairs the Supreme Advisory Council, has assured that the decree will not necessarily mean the government intends to revive the Operational Command for the Restoration of Security and Order he chaired in the 1970s.

The command was established to put out major political unrest during that decade.

Armed Forces Chief Gen. Wiranto said Saturday many people were wrong to believe that the decree would empower the President "unlimited" authority.

"The allegation is untrue," he said after attending a session at the Assembly.

The President, he added, would be required to consider Many factors before he uses the authority, such as the prevalent laws and human rights principles.

Arbi Sanit, a political observer from the University of Indonesia, speculated the extra powers would include the right to dissolve the Assembly, the House, political organizations and arrest people considered to be jeopardizing the nation.

"It empowers the President to take over all state authority if the President thinks the state is in jeopardy," he told The Jakarta Post Saturday.

"He may make the best use of it, in the name of national interest, if, for example, foreign pressure on the government over whatever issue is mounting, or millions of people take to the street to protest against the government," he said.

Other outspoken academics, including constitutional law expert Harun Al Rasyid and political observer Deliar Noer, also sounded objections soon after Soeharto's request was backed last August.

They insisted the decree would make it appear the country was an unsafe place to live, and argued that preemptive measures against subversive activities were dealt with in the 1963 Subversion Law.