Ridwan Max Sijabat and Wahjoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Malang
The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) will hold a plenary session to amend the 1945 Constitution to empower the Regional Representatives Council (DPD).
The session was called for after the administrative and legal requirements for an amendment were met.
Assembly speaker Hidayat Nurwahid said after a MPR leadership meeting Monday that the internal leadership meeting accepted the official request after it won the support of 234 lawmakers.
""The request will be processed within 90 days at the latest. But the plenary session could be held in the next month, pending consultation with factions at the assembly and chiefs of relevant state institutions,"" he said.
The MPR is a joint sitting of both the DPD and the House of Representatives. The House has 550 legislators, while the DPD has 128 representatives. The amendment proposal required support from at least 226 lawmakers from both the House and DPD.
Hidayat stressed that the plenary session's main agenda was to amend Article 22 (d) of the Constitution on the function of regional representatives as was proposed by the lawmakers.
If the amendment proposal is agreed to by two-thirds of those at the session, plus one MPR member, the DPD will be set to gain legislative and budgetary rights to deliberate all bills related to regional interests. The DPD currently only has the right to give legal consideration to bills deliberated by the House.
""No other agenda than the one proposed by the DPD that won support from lawmakers from many political parties (will be discussed),"" he said.
The proposed constitutional amendment was initiated by the 128 regional representatives. The proposal also received support from 126 legislators from the National Awakening Party, the National Mandate Party, the Golkar Party, the Prosperous Justice Party, the Prosperous Peace Party, the United Development Party and the Reformed Star Party.
Idialisman Daci of the Democracy Pioneering Party and 23 lawmakers from the Democratic Party (PD) withdrew their support for the proposed amendment.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle also opposed the proposal, saying that a bicameral legislative system was not recognized by the Constitution.
""Despite PD's withdrawal of support, political support from 234 lawmakers is enough to accept the request and to invite all the lawmakers to assemble,"" Hidayat said.
While in Malang, East Java, DPD Speaker Ginandjar Kartasasmita brushed off accusations that the amendment proposal was the result of the DPD's hunger for more power.
""The amendment, when passed, will take effect after the 2009 general office (handover) when a new DPD takes office,"" Ginandjar told The Jakarta Post.
""We need the amendment to provide the DPD with clear authority and rights to better our political system.""
Ginandjar said PD's withdrawal did not affect the proposal's validity as more lawmakers pledged their support after PD withdrew its endorsement.
The 1945 Constitution was amended four times between 1999 and 2002.
Hidayat, accompanied by his three deputies Achsa Mahmud, Mooryati Soedibyo and A.M. Fatwa, said that the MPR's leadership would meet with leaders of MPR factions next Tuesday, and also with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, House Speaker Agung Laksono, chairman of the Constitutional Court Jimly Asshiddhiqie and Chief Justice Bagir Manan in the next two weeks, to coordinate their preparations for the plenary session.
""The meetings have no authority to turn down the request or to suspend the plenary session,"" he said, adding that the session would not use too much of taxpayers' money because all MPR members were staying in Jakarta and would assemble at the House compound.
