Page 247 - BUKU A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE IN INDONESIA

A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE
IN INDONESIA

Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, or better known as B.J. Habibie, was no
stranger to Soeharto and most of the people at the time. He was a German
graduate inventor and researcher specializing in aeronautical engineer-
ing. Habibie, before becoming Vice President, had been in Soeharto’s De-
velopment Cabinet for several periods. He entered the first cabinet in 1978.

Immediately after becoming President, Habibie at the time carried out
a series of populist policies to boost his popularity, because some con-
sidered him to be just a shadow of the previous president and had weak
legitimacy in running the Government. For this purpose, he and repre-
sentatives of the DPR/MPR at the time agreed to hold a Special Session
of the People’s Consultative Assembly at the end of 1998.

The agenda of the Special Session was to revoke MPR RI Decree No.
XIV/MPR/1998 concerning Amendments and Supplements to MPR RI
Decree No. III/MPR/1988 concerning General Elections. In the decree,
the next election was scheduled for 2002, then it was proposed that it
could be held immediately no later than June 1999.

Immediately after that, there were preparatory steps taken to support the
journey of the first general election during the reformation period. This
BJ Habibie as the third President
of RI. included implementing several policies.

(Source: Personal documentation) 1. Revision of three Political Laws which resulted in Law no. 2 concern-
ing Political Parties, Law no. 3 concerning General Elections, Law
no. 4 concerning the Position/Composition of members of DPR/
MPR, DPRD 1/11.

2. Selection of political parties.

3. Establishment of an organizing body to carry out the first general
election of the reformation era, which in this case was the General
Elections Commission (KPU).

4. Implementation of elections.

The three laws were an important part of the Government’s commitment
to reform. This was mainly with regard to the socio-political field which
was considered incompatible with the principles of democracy. These
three bills were then signed on 1 February 1999 by President B.J. Habibie
and the then Minister of State Secretary Akbar Tanjung.

On the other hand, the reformation marked by the fall of Soeharto also
launched a discourse on limiting the socio-political involvement of ABRI

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