Regional representatives cause headache for MPR
JAKARTA (JP): What's wrong with the People's Consultative Assembly, which has yet to give the green light for the revival of the regional representatives' faction?
And on the eve of the Assembly's special session, the question has raised worries among major political parties afraid of losing political support to impeach embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid.
Maswadi Rauf, a political expert from the University of Indonesia, said the 130 regional representatives were a headache for the Assembly, as major political parties, especially the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and the Golkar Party, would do all they could to ensure the regional representatives' faction was not revived. He said these major parties fear the appearance of a new force in the Assembly.
"Major factions' attempt to impeach the President during the special session will likely run aground because the regional representatives will constitute the second largest faction after PDI Perjuangan, while major parties will lose a number of their members who are representing regions," he said during a panel discussion here on Wednesday.
Maswadi predicted that the situation during the special session would become tense if the regional representatives' future remained unclear, while the National Awakening Party (PKB) and Love the Nation Democratic Party (PDKB) factions were expected to defend the President's political interests.
He said the regional representatives had a great deal of bargaining power in fighting for their political aspirations during the special session.
"The 130 regional representatives could play a role as a wild card, depending on which parties will support their political interests. They could back parties' demand for the President's impeachment if the parties support their proposal, and they could defend the President if their proposal is not included in the special session's agenda," he said.
Of the 130 regional representatives, 63 are from Golkar, 39 PDI Perjuangan while the remaining 28 are from the United Development Party (PPP), PKB and Reform factions.
The regional representatives' faction in the Assembly was dissolved in 1999 on the grounds that the members were appointed by political parties.
Harun Alrasid, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Indonesia, said the dissolution was unlawful because the faction's presence in the Assembly, like the presence of other factions, was guaranteed by the Constitution.
"According to the Constitution, the Assembly consists of legislators from the House of Representatives plus societal groups and regional representatives. Why? Because the House does not represent all of the people," he said.
However, he said the regional representatives should represent various ethnic groups, and should come from the regions they represent.
"Many regional representatives have never lived in the region they are representing and many others are actually party activists," he said, adding that this violated a 1999 law on the composition of the Assembly, House and provincial and regency legislatures.
According to this law, regional representatives are to be elected by provincial legislatures in consultation with provincial governors, and not with political parties.
"The regional representatives must be independent and impartial because their duty in the Assembly is to represent regions and not political parties," he said.
He explained that according to the Constitution, the Assembly is based on a two-room system, namely legislators representing their constituents and "senators" representing regions.
Both Harun and Maswadi argued for having a balanced number of legislators and regional representatives in the Assembly, with all of those in the Assembly being elected during the general election.
"The Assembly's composition should be 500 representatives from political parties and 500 regional representatives," Maswadi said, adding that the societal group faction should be phased out because societal groups could join political parties.
Regional representatives who attended the panel discussion renewed their threat to walk out of the special session if the Assembly rejected their proposal to revive their faction.
"We want the MPR (Assembly) to be fair. We will walk out of the special session if the Working Committee declines to insert our proposal in the special session's agenda," said Vincent T. Radja, who represents North Sumatra. (rms)