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.