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.