Council – a step closer to becoming a senate?

(News Terupdate) - Regional representatives expressed delight that the name of their institution, the Regional Representatives Council, is displayed on the main building of the grounds of the national representative bodies, but are still shy when introducing themselves as senators, despite the title on their business cards.

Members say they lack the constitutional basis to make such a political claim to be on par with the prestigious image of the US Senate.

“We introduce ourselves as senators overseas but we don’t do so at home,” Council speaker Irman Gusman said.

The Council is seeking another constitutional amendment to be equal with the House of Representatives, he said in a recent interview with The Jakarta Post.

The former Council deputy hailed the recent officiating of the Council logo at the building of the People’s Consultative Assembly.

Irman said it was a historical event signifying the recognition of the Council as a state institution and as another chamber along with the House in the bicameral parliament.

Previously, Council members were the Utusan Daerah (regional representatives) faction of the House. Together with members of the Utusan Golongan (group representatives), which included the military and police, they were not elected.

Other legislators gained more prestige, although under the New Order, no one considered elections democratic.

Now as a separate body directly representing constituencies, “We will continue to fight for our dignity and existence through reform and political lobbying mainly with the House, the government and political parties,” Irman said.

The Council has two deputies — Laode Ida and GKR Hemas — four committees to deal with its relevant partners in the executive body, a legislative committee to prepare draft laws and deliberate them with the House and government, a household committee and another for its code of ethics.

Assembly Speaker Taufik Kiemas referred to the Council’s new role as “the birth of the unwanted baby”, confirming other politicians’ wariness of potential competition.

Taufik, the husband of Megawati Soekarnoputri, chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which opposes the constitutional empowerment of the Council, said all sides had to accept the Council and its important role in representing regions.

Along with the House and the Assembly, he said the Council “compliments the manifestation of the people’s sovereignty”.
“People power”, he added, was mainly through consultation instead of voting.

Observers say the Council should go all out in improving the visibility of directly elected representatives.

The political system still gives political parties a large say in determining their candidates for the legislature.

Saldi Isra, a professor of constitutional law at Andalas University in Padang, West Sumatra, said the regional representatives should be cautious in the political timing and intensity of their lobbying of political parties to amend the Constitution.

“The upper houses of parliament in the UK and Australia gained their proper status on par with the lower houses through struggling” as it was very difficult for political parties to concede political influence, he said.

In the past the Council has gone through a series of institutional changes.

Members used to be appointed to maintain the status quo
through their authority to elect the President and Vice President, and to amend the Constitution.

Entering the reform era, all regional representatives were elected in the 1999 legislative election.

During the series of constitutional amendments in 1999 to 2002, the regional representative factions in the Assembly proposed the establishment of the Council as a state institution to form a bicameral parliamentary system.

The proposal was accepted but the Constitution recognized the Council as a state institution with limited legislative, budgeting and control functions.

This reflected a widespread aversion among most political parties of seeing a potential rival in the Council.

The Constitution gives limited power to Council in its
legislative, budgeting and control functions and rights.

The constitution allows the Council to deliberate bills, annual state budgets and supervise law enforcement.

But a 2003 law limits the Council’s legislative rights to only give legal considerations in the lawmaking process, which is fully dominated by the executive and the House.

Under the leadership of Ginandjar Kartasasmita, a senior figure from the Golkar Party, the Council called for a special Assembly session to further amend the Constitution.

Predictably, most House members ignored the call.

With the enactment of the 2008 political laws allowing party cadres to contend Council seats, political parties allowed regional representatives to take part in deliberating bills as stipulated by a 2007 law on representatives bodies.

But by ruling that Council members spend part of their tenure working in their regions, the challenge for the members is to overcome the distance with Jakarta, which could cause them to lose influence with decision makers in the capital.

If they were not in Jakarta, said a legislator with the PDI-P, “they wouldn’t be able to do much”.

The University of Indonesia’s Irman Putra Sidin said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should take the initiative in amending the Constitution to empower the Council and create a functioning check-and-balance mechanism in parliament.

“Such an initiative would show his political commitment to building a true democracy in the largest Muslim country,” he said.

Many observers proposed such an amendment on the eve of the Nov. 20, 2009, Presidential inauguration.

But political parties have voiced objections, citing fears that the Assembly could be used by the President’s Democratic Party and others to extend the presidential term of office from a maximum of two to three consecutive periods.

Yudhoyono, who won 67 percent of the votes in the last presidential election, would likely run for the job again.

The Council will have to work hard to overcome all sorts of excuses to dismiss such objections.


DPD metamorphosis

Period status seats membership function
Until 1997 MPR faction 65 appointment Political faction
1999-2004 MPR faction 130 election Constitutional amendment
2004-2009 state institution 128 direct election 174 decisions, legal considerations
2009-2014 state institution 132 direct election 53 draft bills, supervision

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