Page 76 - BUKU A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE IN INDONESIA

FROM VOLKSRAAD TO THE CENTRAL INDONESIAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE
(1917–1949)

The evolution of BP KNIP’s administrative rules and regulations from the
beginning to the end of its operation would be something interesting to
observe and understand. Unfortunately, this cannot be done as many
KNIP documents were lost during the revolution. KNIP documents were
deliberately destroyed by the Republic during the Dutch Military Aggres-
sion II to prevent the Dutch from getting confidential information regard-
ing the Republic of Indonesia.

Some of the surviving archives are compiled at the National Archives of
.
the Republic of Indonesia in a collection entitled “BP KNIP Documents”
Among these archives, an ordinance dated June 10, 1947 describes
the rules of conduct in the early days of BP KNIP under Mr. Assaat’s
leadership.

This document explains BP KNIP’s ways of working with the government
both in drafting and passing the laws and when monitoring the govern-
ment’s performance. It also contains regulations regarding supplemen-
tary committees that assisted BP KNIP in carrying out its duties. The
committees included:

1. Standing Committee

2. Special Committee

3. Subcommittees

4. Household Committee

The Standing Committee and the Special Committee were tasked to as-
sist BP KNIP in formulating laws and for other purposes related to leg-
islation. The Standing Committee was responsible for conducting an ex-
amination of the bills preparation, including reporting the results of the
examination by compiling a “Joint Report” which would be submitted to
the ministers, as to allow written responses be made through the “An-
swer Annotation” mechanism.

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