Page 221 - BUKU A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE IN INDONESIA

A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE
IN INDONESIA

THE HISTORY AND THE ROLE OF DPR-GR

1967-1971

Slowly, Indonesia’s political changes began to occur in the mid-1960s. The trigger
was the incident that happened at dawn on 1 October 1965, where there was an

assassination of the Minister Commander of the Armed Forces (AD) and five

generals by a military gang with ties to the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI).
T

he post-September 30 Movement (G30S) period in 1965 was a difficult
period for the Indonesian people to go through. The incident caused a
number of serious impacts on various aspects of life and social strata of
society. One of the most memorable was the one in the political aspect. It
could be said that the Guided Democracy period (1959-1966) was a pe-
riod in which there was a struggle for influence between several political
and military factions with different ideologies.

Broadly speaking, there were two opposing forces at that time, name-
ly the military faction and the communist faction. However, there were
things that had been forgotten in the discussion of the political arena in
Indonesia at the time. One of them was regarding the role and function of
pre- and post-Guided Democracy parliaments.

At that time, the Indonesian parliament was controlled by the majority
of major parties such as the PNI, PKI, and some of the Islamic factions
within the NU Party. In addition, at this time, there was a quite significant
intervention and influence of President Soekarno, as if the parliament
was under his political control.

The parliament or what is commonly referred to in Indonesia as the Peo-
ple’s Representative Council (DPR) is essentially a tool to limit the power
of a president in a country that adheres to a presidential system. If all
powers, legislature, executive, and judiciary—referring to the theory of

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