The constitutional game

Hardly a day goes by without one or more of our top politicians invoking the Constitution in the power struggle among the country's political elite. The basic law, or the UUD 1945, is increasingly looking more like a tool to attack opponents, or to defend one's action or position, and less like a set of rules to administer the state. Every self-righteous politician, it seems, is finding ways of using the UUD 1945 to his or her own advantage.

President Abdurrahman Wahid, fighting for his survival, was quoted by Minister of Defense Mahfud MD as stating on Wednesday that he would resign if he had violated the Constitution, as accused by his foes in the House of Representatives. This is, of course, another one of those political tautologies with no real meaning whatsoever except to confuse the already muddled situation. The President obviously has no intention of resigning but with that statement he is challenging, or demanding, those calling for his head to prove their accusations.

His critics have also fallen back on the Constitution in their campaign to unseat him, some doggedly sticking to the letter of the basic law, others are taking a more loose interpretation.

Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri and the Indonesian Military (TNI) supported the House's decision to issue the memorandum of censure against the President, but have insisted that any further move must follow constitutional mechanisms.

People's Consultative Assembly chairman Amien Rais and House Speaker Akbar Tandjung, supported by their political factions, while professing to remain constitutional, have tried to circumvent the process. The House has began drafting the second memorandum against the President without bothering to wait for his official response to the first one. More than 150 legislators in the meantime have signed another petition rebuking the President for violating the Constitution. Amien has also looked into the possibility of waiving the second memorandum altogether to call for a special session of the Assembly to impeach the President.

Thanks to the power struggle between these leaders, the Constitution has now been reduced to nothing more than a board game that only a few of the nation's political leaders play. Every one is invoking it, and every one feels that they are right when their turn to speak comes. Since the UUD 1945 lays down only the general principles of managing the state, it is open to many different, at times contradicting, interpretations. This has made the constitutional game more interesting. The rest of the nation can only watch until the game is played out and a winner emerges for the accolade as the most constitutional of them all.

While these politicians profess to be playing by the rules, they seem to have forgotten that, as important as it is to abide by the letter of the Constitution, it is even more important to live up to the spirit embodied in the basic law.

Encyclopedia Britannica defines a constitution as "a body of fundamental laws and principles according to which a political state is governed. It determines the organization of a government, the functions and powers of the government in general and of its subdivisions and officers, and how these functions and powers are to be exercised."

In short, the constitution lays down the rules about how the state should be managed that will ensure peace, order and harmony, and progress and prosperity within that country. These were what the drafters of the Constitution had in mind in 1945 as outlined in the preamble.

By treating the Constitution as nothing more than a board game, present day Indonesian leaders have ensured that there is minimal governance, resulting in little peace and order in many parts of the archipelago, virtually no economic development and therefore little hope of increasing public prosperity.

The UUD 1945 is not a perfect set of documents, but that is not where the problem really lies. The biggest fault lies with those who administer the Constitution: the political elite who exercise power. They have to implement the Constitution not only according to the letter, but more importantly, its soul and spirit.

The UUD 1945 has undergone a series of amendments over the past two years and will no doubt continue to do so in the coming years. While we can come up with the most perfect or detailed set of documents to govern the country, they are meaningless as long as they are administered by people who are politically corrupt, or, as regarding the case of present day leaders, by those who only treat the Constitution as nothing more than a game.