Page 171 - BUKU A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE IN INDONESIA

A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE
IN INDONESIA

the Presidential Decree of the Republic of Indonesia Number 1 of 1959
concerning the House of Representatives was a Presidential Regulation
prior to the existence of MPR-DPR and in concreto in the context of the
Presidential Decree implementation.

In this context, the use of presidential decree as a juridical form in es-
tablishing the 1959 House of Representatives was actually a new form of
regulation. The President’s letter addressed to the DPR in August 1959
explained that since the re-enactment of the 1945 Constitution, there had
been new forms of state regulations, namely (1) Presidential Decrees to
implement the Presidential Decree of 5 July 1959; (2) Presidential Regula-
tions; (3) Government Regulations to implement the Presidential Regu-
lations; (4) Presidential Decrees; (5) Ministerial
Regulations and Ministerial Decrees.

Later on, these presidential decrees had an im-
The leadership of the portant role in determining the constitutional life

DPR after the 1959 of the Republic of Indonesia and the existence
of the DPR. However, in the first opening ple-
Presidential Decree was nary session of the DPR after being “reformed”

still filled by the same through the Presidential Decree No. 1 of 1959,

people as that of the all factions generally supported the Presidential
Decree and accepted the President’s request to
previous DPR. continue working within the framework of the

1945 Constitution.

In the session which was attended by 183 mem-
bers, each faction had the opportunity to speak
by being represented by a member of their faction. The next day, the
“new” DPR members based on the 1945 Constitution were sworn in. The
leadership of the DPR after the 1959 Presidential Decree was still filled by
the same people as that of the previous DPR.

The election for the leadership of the DPR did not end up following the
previous DPR Rules of Procedure considering that they were new parlia-
mentary leaders. The composition of the faction consisted of 18 factions
and there were four members who declared no faction. The existence of
factions in the DPR, in terms of terminology, still followed the term “fac-
tion” which had been known since the Provisional DPR period in 1950,
as stated in Article 28 paragraph (3) and paragraph (5) of the Provisional
DPR (DPRS) Rules of Procedure. In fact, if the DPRS Rules of Procedure
only explained what was meant by a faction, in the regulations of the 1959

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