Smita Notosusanto, crusader of constitutional change

Smita Notosusanto, crusader of constitutional change

The fight for a new Indonesia, with a new constitution, will
drag on for years, and possibly take more than 10 years,
according to electoral reform activist Smita Notosusanto.

Thus, campaigners for constitutional change like her need
unusually strong stamina so that they can maintain their efforts
despite the seemingly hopeless situation.

"In the beginning, we supported the constitutional amendment
process. But now, we are demanding a new constitution for
Indonesia," said Smita, also a lecturer at the University of
Indonesia.

She said she and her fellow activists could no longer accept
the constitutional amendment process being undertaken by the
People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

The MPR had betrayed the people, she said, by amending the
1945 Constitution without adequate public consultation.

The most damaging amendments included those on human rights
and the strengthening of the MPR's power over constitutional
change.

"Learning from these incidents, we can no longer trust the
politicians to amend our constitution, moreover to write a new
one," she said.

Therefore, Smita and her fellow activists grouped in the
Coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations for a New
Constitution are trying to mobilize support to demand that the
MPR stop the amendment process and allow the establishment of an
independent constitutional commission to write a new
constitution.

Because of her consistent stance on constitutional reform,
Smita has become synonymous with the movement for a new
constitution.

The campaign for a new constitution is only one of her agendas
as an activist. Direct presidential elections are another.

It's because of her latter campaign that she was harassed by
unidentified people, who kept on plaguing her with nuisance phone
calls.

Such harassment, however, has not been able to stop her from
campaigning.

Her next project will be a campaign for new electoral and
party political laws.

Her mission is to secure the inclusion of clauses on an
improved electoral system, an ad hoc electoral court, improved
campaign funding regulations, elections for governors and
regents, and an independent electoral commission.

"If we get three out of five included in a law, I would
consider myself to have succeeded," she said.

The most worrying issue, however, was that the bills were not
yet ready.

"This will be another challenge."

Her active role in the coalition for a new constitution as
well as in the Center for Electoral Reform (CETRO), where she
serves as the executive director, takes up most of her time.

Free time is therefore scarce, and what there is is spent with
her husband and nine-year-old son.

Born in London on August 24, 1961, Smita inherited her trait
as an educator from her father, the late writer turned minister
Nugroho Notosusanto.

Smita is now a lecturer in the Women's Studies Program and the
Department of International Relations at the University of
Indonesia.

Because of her increasingly time-consuming activities as an
electoral reform activist, Smita is no longer able to work as a
full-time teacher for her students at the University of
Indonesia, where she built her reputation as an expert on
international affairs, especially relating to America.

She was tasked to teach international affairs at the
university, where she obtained her undergraduate degree in
political science, after she got her masters degree from the
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Boston,
the U.S.

She unintentionally changed her specialization from
international affairs to constitutional reform only after the
fall of former president Soeharto in 1998.

In that year, Smita should have been in the United States
earning her doctoral degree. Instead, she went home. Just after
Soeharto stepped down, Smita participated in the establishment of
the National Commission for Women.

In the following year, Smita organized an election monitoring
organization, the University Network for Free and Fair Elections
(UNFREL), which recruited around 90,000 volunteers from among
university students and teachers to observe the 1999 general
election.

"After the election, UNFREL was automatically dissolved as all
the students had to go back to campus. We then established CETRO
to help reform the electoral system in Indonesia," she said.

Her involvement in CETRO has changed her image from that of an
expert on international affairs into an electoral campaigner.

And she does not regret it.

"I realize now that it would be a lot more difficult to
initiate change from inside the campus. Campaigning for change by
going out of the campus and meeting the people has turned out to
be more effective," she said.