MPR Speaker: No Immediate Target for Amendment

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Bambang Soesatyo seems unburdened by the MPR's big agenda of amending the 1945 Constitution for the fifth time, for the purpose of reviving the State Policy Guidelines (GBHN) and reinforce the MPR. Bambang also did not set a completion target for the amendments to.

Bambang said that he arrives to the MPR as a sheet of "clean white paper". Despite coming from Golkar, he promised he would "embrace" all interests.

"There is no target. We're not a bus that has to meet certain fare targets," he said while laughing during a special interview with Tempo on Friday, October 11. 

Bambang said that the MPR does not want to rush the amendment agenda. In the next year or two, he said, the MPR will take in public aspirations, hence all options are welcomed. 

"We are well aware of the extraordinary implications. We cannot make mistakes as the constitution cannot undergo judicial reviews like laws do. So we are being very careful. We want the results of this amendment to have zero complaint," he said.

When asked about how some factions, such as PDIP, want this agenda immediately completed, Bambang said everything depends on the people's wishes. 

"Their chairperson sees this as the most urgent matter. The leader's anxiety usually spreads downward as they have the same rhythm. This is what the PDIP Faction showed."

PDIP has been the most ardent party in carrying out and amendment of the 1945 Constitution. The PDIP even made it a requirement for the party's support of Bambang Soesatyo's candidacy as speaker of the MPR.

TEMPO.CO