Supreme Advisory Council fights for survival

Supreme Advisory Council fights for survival

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Ignoring mounting demands for the scrapping of the Supreme
Advisory Council (DPA), chairman Achmad Tirtosudiro has lodged a
complaint with the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) over its
plan to place one of the state's highest institution under the
President.

"Basically, DPA should be on the same level with the President
so it can maintain objectivity in making suggestions to the
President," he told the press before delivering a progress report
to the Assembly on Thursday.

The MPR has agreed to downgrade Chapter IV of the 1945
Constitution which stipulates the existence of the council and to
place it as a clause in Article 16 on government authority. The
clause states that the President shall establish an advisory
council.

The amendment of Article 16 will be finalized in the ongoing
MPR Annual Session.

Tirtosudiro insisted that the council was still necessary,
saying, "other countries in Europe or Asia have a similar
institution".

In the progress report, Tirtosudiro stated that DPA had
submitted 180 recommendations to President B.J. Habibie and
President Abdurrahman Wahid, and another 23 to President Megawati
Soekarnoputri.

The council proposed, among other things, an antiterrorism
law. The proposal, however, has become obsolete since the
drafting was made years before the UN Security Council issued a
resolution on Sept. 28, 2001, on the campaign against terrorism.