Page 163 - BUKU A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE IN INDONESIA

A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE
IN INDONESIA

TRANSFORMATION FROM THE PEOPLE’S

REPRESENTATIVES TO THE ASSISTANT

TO PRESIDENT

The topic of people’s representatives as the assistants to the President obviously

cannot be separated from the position, duties, and authority of the House of
T
Representatives. This was stated in the 1945 Constitution and other regulations
contained in the laws of the Republic of Indonesia.

his chapter discusses the extent of the role of the legislature in the prac-
tice of Indonesian constitutional system. Can the House of Representa-
tives (DPR) consistently carry out its performance in accordance with
its position, duties, and authorities according to the system of the 1945
Constitution and other laws of the Republic of Indonesia?

Before discussing the topic further ahead, the reasons for the choice of
words or terms used, such as position, duties, and authority, both con-
tained in the 1945 Constitution and during the period of the People’s
Representative Council of Mutual Assistance (DPR-GR), will first be dis-
closed. There are several terms used in this regard. Some call it position,
while some use the terms duties and authority or function. Some of them
only use the term authority, which of course has a different meaning from
duties and authority.

Until now, there is no standardized term that can be used in this context.
The Constitution also does not explicitly specify the issue. At the DPR
level, it is more often referred to as “rights and obligations” and “func-
tions” instead of “authority and duties”. Meanwhile, at the MPR level, the
term duties is mentioned before authority, so it is stated as “duties and
authority”. While the House of Representatives (DPR) in its regulations
uses the terms “duties and authorities”, the People’s Consultative Assem-
bly (MPR) first carries out all its obligations which are deemed as duties,
and then followed by the rights that it has.

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