Page 137 - BUKU A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE IN INDONESIA

A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE
IN INDONESIA

3. Establishment of the National Council. Members of the National
Council consist of functional groups in society. Its main task is to
provide advice to the Cabinet, whether requested or not. The func-
tional groups are workers, peasants, intellectuals, national business-
men, youth, women, the 1945 generation, religious scholars, Protes-
tant-Catholics, people who carry regional votes, chief of staff, police
chief, Attorney General, and several ministers.

4. Formation of the Four-Leg Cabinet. The president’s conception calls
for the formation of a Four-Leg Cabinet, in which the major parties,
namely PNI, Masyumi, NU, and PKI, are intended to create national
cooperation.

The President’s conception, in principle, reduced the power of the 1955
DPR. President Soekarno felt that the various problems that occurred
and the political instability that endangered the life of the nation and the
state stemmed from the DPR’s opposition, which he considered destruc-
tive. The President linked it to the liberal democratic system, which he
opposed. As an alternative to that system, the President adopted the
concept of Guided Democracy, which put forward the principle of gotong
royong. Then the President interpreted the cooperation by appointing
representatives following the balance of power in society. That’s where
the term “Four Legs” came from, a nod to the strength of the four main
parties that won the 1955 General Election.

Since the Presidential Conception was delivered in 1957, there had been
a tug-of-war between the government and the President versus the par-
liament and society. The discourse itself raised concerns about strength-
ening the President’s power and the death of democracy.

However, under the pretext of saving the country, Soekarno succeeded
in convincing various groups of the importance of the conception he pro-
posed.

Soekarno’s political ideas became a milestone for the discourse on
returning to the 1945 Constitution. After the Presidential Conception
was delivered, steps were taken to realize the political views impli-
cated in the conception. Soekarno then sought the formation of a new

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