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.