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Parties soften stances on constitutional amendments
The talk on whether the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) needs to amend the 1945 Constitution is still going on, with the political parties appearing to soften their stances, saying a change of one aspect would be like opening Pandora’s box as it could lead to changes of other aspects
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span>The talk on whether the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) needs to amend the 1945 Constitution is still going on, with the political parties appearing to soften their stances, saying a change of one aspect would be like opening Pandora’s box as it could lead to changes of other aspects.
MPR Deputy Speaker Ahmad Muzani of the opposition Gerindra Party said all factions had agreed to carry out “limited amendments” to the Constitution, focusing only on reinstating the long-defunct policy framework for long-term development plans (GBHN).
However, some parties have started to express concern, including Gerindra, which initially proposed a thorough amendment to bring the Constitution back to its original form.
“I see the factions’ views are now somewhat different from what they were during the last meeting of the MPR,” Muzani said on Friday.
Muzani said a strong commitment from the political party leaders and the Regional Representative Council (DPD) was needed to ensure that the amendments would be limited only to bringing the GBHN back and they would not be expanded to affect other aspects of the Constitution, including reviving the MPR’s authority to appoint the president, a system that was used for more than three decades by the dictator Soeharto during his New Order era.
A House of Representatives deputy speaker, who is also Gerindra’s deputy chairman, Fadli Zon, said on Friday the amendment should only aim to revive the GBHN, not other aspects like the electoral system.
“I think the current electoral system is good. We don’t have to go back to the old one.Let us amend the Constitution, but not all of it,” Fadli said.Muzani added that he was not sure all factions would agree and would be committed, considering the political dynamics nowadays. However, he said there was still a possibility.
Constitutional law expert Feri Amsari of Andalas University in Padang, West Sumatra said there must be a hidden agenda in the amendment movement that could be seen from several years back.
The debate over amendments has been running since the era of then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. However, it has become more intense in the last four years during President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s tenure, with the existence of a team jointly established by the DPD and four political party factions at the House.
Soon after the fall of president Soeharto, the MPR amended the Constitution four times between 1999 and 2002 in an attempt to limit the power and authority of the president.
The amendments also allowed greater checks and balances among state bodies by redistributing power among the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the government.
“Not only PDI-P [the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle], but almost all parties also have the spirit to amend it because it means that the center of power would be back with the political parties. Today they want to revive the GBHN and it could be that one day they will change our electoral system,” Feri said.
Voicing a similar opinion, Veri Junaidi, chairman of the judiciary watchdog KoDe Inisiatif, said the hidden political agenda behind the limited amendment would be a change in the electoral system.
“This is going to be wild,” he said.Veri added that the 2024 election should be a breath of fresh air for the nation’s politics because there would be several new potential figures in the race for the presidency.
He argued that the parties that support the amendment are those that are threatened by the fact that they should face the situation.He added that the amendment also aimed to control Jokowi, given that he seemed to have been at odds several times with PDI-P leader Megawati Soekarnoputri.
The most recent moment was when Megawati openly asked for the most seats in Jokowi’s new Cabinet during the party congress weeks ago.
“I see that there is a desire to control the President,” Veri said.
This is not the first time for PDI-P to push for a GBHN revival. Gerindra, as the party that won the second-largest vote in the legislative elections, could help make it come true.
Center for Policy and Legal Studies researcher Fajri Nursyamsi said political party interests were similar when it came to the amendment, as strengthening the authority of the MPR would greatly benefit them.
Despite the dynamics within the factions beginning to be seen, Fajri said that the chance the amendment would happen this time was quite big as the legal mechanism could be carried out within the MPR. If the parties are solidly behind it, the chance would be even bigger.
“They have seen solid so far by not bringing up this issue during the 2019 general elections. This is the proof this issue is not going to benefit the public,” he said.
Ray Rangkuti, director of an election watchdog, the Indonesian Civil Society Circle (Lima), said that reviving the GBHN would only benefit the PDI-P.
This strategy is seen as an effort by PDI-P to control whoever the next president would be. If it happens, other parties could become upset as the 2024 elections would be a free-fighting arena for the new faces of the nation’s
leaders.
“Parties in the legislature should realize that this agenda will not benefit them. Many parties will have a golden chance to prepare new members for the upcoming [presidential] race,” Ray said.
