Academia
President Prabowo Subianto is displayed on screens as he delivers his annual State of the Nation address ahead of the country's 81st Independence Day anniversary in front of the members of the legislative bodies during the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) plenary session on Aug. 14 at the Senayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta. (Reuters/Stringer)
It is almost a done deal. After a decade of false starts under President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, the push to revive a binding state roadmap, the Pokok-Pokok Haluan Negara (Principles of State Policy, or PPHN), finally has what it lacked: political consensus and a president willing to back it.When Ahmad Muzani, chair of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), met President Prabowo Subianto earlier this month, the message was unmistakable. Prabowo endorsed the idea of a PPHN as a long-term national development blueprint and left the mechanism to the MPR. For MPR leaders, that was the signal they had been waiting for.
The politics are ready. The law is not. PPHN did make it to the agenda of this year’s MPR session, which opened Aug. 14. But the proponents aren’t giving up. To make PPHN binding, lawmakers must amend the Constitution. That means clearing the high bar of Article 37 of the Constitution: support from at least one-third of MPR members to propose the amendment, a two-thirds quorum and majority approval of all members.
