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View all search resultsRenewed plan to reinstate New Order-style state guidelines draws flak
The return of state policy guidelines, a practice during the authoritarian New Order era, could trigger a constitutional amendment that could snowball into wider changes, including reinstating the status of People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) as the nation’s highest authority and its long-removed power to appoint the president.
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Lawmakers attend a People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) plenary session on Oct. 2, 2024, at the Senayan legislative complex in Jakarta. (Antara/Dhemas Reviyanto)
T
he renewed People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) plan to revive now-defunct state policy guidelines has sparked concerns of opening a Pandora's box that would further undermine the country's democratic condition.
After dropping the plan last year to introduce the so-called state policy outlines (PPHN) amid public concern that the process could be used to extend then-president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s tenure, the MPR recently revived the proposal to steer national development over the next 50 to 100 years.
The process to introduce the PPHN, a clear echo of the now-defunct state policy guidelines (GBHN) of the authoritarian New Order era, could trigger the first constitutional changes since four amendments from 1999 to 2002 that marked the nation’s democratic transition after Soeharto’s fall. Critics feared that it could snowball into wider changes, including reinstating the MPR’s status as the nation’s highest authority and restoring its long-removed power to appoint the president.
MPR deputy speaker Eddy Soeparno, a politician from the pro-government National Mandate Party (PAN), told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that the proposed guidelines were aimed at “ensuring continuity in national development”, particularly in economic growth and human resource improvement.
He said current discussions were focused on deciding ways to adopt the guidelines, either through amending the Constitution, by consensus, or enacting it through legislation.
Another option under review, according to MPR research body member Andreas Pareira last month was to revive the policy guidelines through an MPR decree, which would also require amending the Constitution to restore the assembly’s authority to unilaterally endorse the guidelines.
Read also: Fresh call for constitutional amendment splits House
