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Defying the party: Jokowi hints at different stance to PDI-P on Constitution amendment

Jokowi said on Wednesday that he would not support the amendment if it was aimed at changing the electoral system. He indicated his opposition to the MPR having the authority to appoint the nation's president, signaling his support for the people's right to directly elect their leader.

Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post)
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Jakarta
Thu, August 15, 2019

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Defying the party: Jokowi hints at different stance to PDI-P on Constitution amendment Legislature employees take part in a rehearsal for the 2019 annual plenary meeting of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) at the parliament complex in Jakarta on Thursday. (Antara/Dhemas Reviyanto)

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mid efforts by the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) to push a controversial plan to amend the 1945 Constitution, restoring the People’s Consultative Assembly's (MPR) position as the highest lawmaking institution in the country, party member President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has hinted that he objects to the idea.

The MPR has been discussing “limited amendments” to the Constitution since 2014, one focus of which was to reinstate the now-defunct policy framework for long-term development plans (GBHN). The PDI-P has also spearheaded the revision, including it in its recent congress recommendation along with a majority of political parties at the House of Representatives.

The amendment would grant the MPR a greater mandate that it currently has to draft the GBHN for the President to follow the development plan and sanction the latter for failing to implement it.

Despite parties having argued that their sole aim was to reinstate the GBHN, concerns have been raised that if the amendment was realized, the MPR's power to control the government would be restored. With greater power, it is also feared that the MPR would have the authority to appoint a president and vice president, a system that was sustained for more than three decades under the former dictator Soeharto’s New Order regime.

Jokowi said on Wednesday that he would not support the amendment if it was aimed at changing the electoral system. He indicated his opposition to the MPR having the authority to appoint the nation's president, signaling his support for the people's right to directly elect their leader.

“I am [a president] directly elected by the people, why would I support [the plan for] the MPR to appoint a president,” Jokowi told a group of chief editors, including The Jakarta Post's, on Wednesday.

Jokowi also appeared to indicate his opposition to reinstating the GBHN, saying that the country already had Law No. 25 on national development planning.

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