The discourse of postponing the election or extending the presidency has an impact on the plan to amend the Constitution to include the Principles of State Policy (PPHN).
Deputy Chairperson of the MPR from the PDIP faction, Ahmad Basarah, proposed that the limited amendment to the 1945 Constitution to stipulate the PPHN be postponed until 2024 so as not to arouse public suspicion.
“In the MPR itself, the agenda being discussed through the MPR Review Board is regarding the Limited Amendment of the Constitution only to bring back the MPR’s authority to determine the PPHN,” said Basarah.
“However, considering the political dynamics that are developing at this time, which has indeed entered the ‘political year’, especially now there is a lot of talk about postponing the election which will have implications for extending the presidential term. Therefore, the proposed limited amendment to the Constitution should not be implemented in the 2019-2024 period,” he continued.
PDIP and PKS now have one vote to postpone the proposed limited amendment to the 1945 Constitution. Initially, the amendment was proposed to include the main points of state policy (PPHN).
The Deputy Chair of the PKS Faction MPR, Hidayat Nur Wahid, appreciated the PDIP MPR faction’s move in proposing the postponement of a limited amendment to the 1945 Constitution related to the main points of state policy (PPHN) until 2024.
According to Hidayat, it is inappropriate to make amendments to the constitution in the near future to prevent people’s bad perception of the MPR, especially now that the discourse on postponing elections and extending the presidential term is getting stronger.
“This is a wise attitude, even though the F-PDIP MPR RI initially supported a limited amendment to the Constitution to present a PPHN according to the recommendations of the previous MPR leadership,” said Hidayat.
“There are parties who are reported to be using the proposed limited amendment to pass their political agenda, namely postponing elections and/or extending the term of office of the president, it is only natural that the current leader of F-PDIP in the MPR, who is also Deputy Chairperson of the MPR, Ahmad Basarah, conveys the position of F-PDIP. -PDIP so that even though the amendment plan is limited, it will be postponed until the 2019-2024 MPR period is complete,” he continued.
He also stated the attitude of PKS which rejected the limited amendment to the 1945 Constitution on the main points of state policy (PPHN) and asked that the PPHN be formed simply through a law.
“PKS supports the last position of F-PDIP, because it is in line with the attitude of the PKS MPR faction, which even since the past period has refused to amend the Constitution to introduce PPHN. The F-PKS MPR RI is of the opinion that it is enough to present PPHN through a strengthened law,” said HNW.
This attitude was also taken to prevent maneuvering of proposed amendments to the Constitution for postponing elections or increasing the term of office of the President, by using the momentum of proposals for limited amendments to the Constitution.
Furthermore, Hidayat asked the political elite to stop discussing the discourse of postponing the election and extending President Jokowi’s office, and to respect the decision of the government and the election organizers who had agreed on the election date on February 14, 2024.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Chair of the MPR for the Democratic Faction, Sjarifuddin Hasan, stated that his party’s stance from the start was against the limited amendments to the 1945 Constitution to include the Principles of State Policy (PPHN).
Syarief emphasized that it is still important to hold the PPHN, but it does not need to go through a constitutional amendment and is sufficient based on the Law on the National Long-Term Development Plan (RPJPN).
“From the beginning the Democratic Party faction stated that the PPHN was needed by the nation, but the legal umbrella was sufficient with the law as it has been implemented and succeeded,” said Syarief.
The member of Commission I of the DPR considers that the amendment to the 1945 Constitution is a big risk because it can change the Indonesian state administration system, especially now that there are discourses on postponing elections and extending the term of office of the president.
“There is no need to amend the 1945 Constitution because it will change our constitutional system,” he said.
Don’t be forced by the president for 3 periods, Kulat later
The head of the DPP Department of the Democratic Party, Sartono Hutomo, responded to the statement by Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan who asked for the postponement of the 2024 election because there were hundreds of millions of conversations on social media.
Sartono asked Luhut not to impose the claim because it contradicts the spirit of the 1998 reform. He reminded that President Jokowi, ministers, governors, mayors and regents throughout Indonesia were the result of reform events.
“Don’t betray the reforms. They are not aware that all of this is the fruit of the reformation. If they understand, there will not be issues or discourse on postponing the election and extending the presidency. Don’t force it, you’ll get better later,” said Sartono Hutomo.
The member of Commission VII of the DPR RI asked the ministers of the Forward Indonesia Cabinet to focus on carrying out their duties as much as possible, not to be busy initiating the discourse of postponing the election which is clearly beyond their authority.
“Don’t talk strangely, you must focus on carrying out government duties, carrying out their duties and responsibilities according to the rules,” he stressed.
He also demanded that the government immediately resolve the problems that occur in society today, such as the increase in the price of cooking oil and foodstuffs ahead of the fasting month.