The Legal Politics of the Inquiry Rights of the House of Representatives Post 1945 Constitutional Amendment

Abstract

The legal politics of the inquiry rights of the House of Representatives post 1945 constitutional amendment is to strengthen the position and function of the House of Representatives. The strengthening of the House of Representatives function in the regulation of inquiry rights is proven by the existence of regulation of the function of the House of Representatives' supervision of the inquiry rights in Article 20 A paragraph (2) second amendment o 1945 constitution. Prior to 1945 constitutional amendment, the oversight function of the House of Representatives was only regulated in the description of the 1945 Constitution. The oversight function of the House of Representatives regulated in the description of the 1945 Constitution was still in general. The regulation of the House of Representatives’ function in the description of the 1945 Constitution does not explicitly mention the types of supervision from the House of Representatives, inquiry rights, interpellation rights or the right to express opinions. One of the objectives of People's Consultative Assembly in conducting the amendment of the 1945 Constitution was to emphasize the presidential system; the 1945 Constitution prior to amendment does not follow a presidential system purely. The choice to reinforce the presidential system is to build a stable government. The regulation of the inquiry rights of the House of Representatives is considered by some Indonesian constitutional law experts to be counterproductive if it is associated with the purpose of amending the 1945 Constitution to reinforce the presidential system. Some experts argue that inquiry rights are common in countries that adopt a parliamentary system, because the right of inquiry is one of the main characteristics of a parliamentary system, whereas in a country that adheres to a presidential system the inquiry rights is unusual. The methods used in this paper include the comparative method. The comparison with the United States, which is the first country the first country to adopt a presidential system, then it can be seen that in the constitutional system in the United States also recognizes the authority of the Congress to conduct a supervision on the government’s performance or known as Congressional Oversight.

Keywords : The Legal Politics, The Inquiry Rights, Post 1945 Constitutional Amendment

DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/85-14

Publication date:May 31^st 2019