By: Goenawan Mohamad

— To the generals who lost their power

The general who lost their power, look at this: constitution is not God’s saying, this country is not a fairy tale creature.

We are consisted of our body, soul, spirit, soil, and water with dreams, fantasies, dissatisfied feelings, pride, passion for self-esteem, desire to be rich, and dignity or be a common person. We are human beings who are crafted to express kindness, intellectualism, but also stupidity and cruelty. We posses muscular strength and pain from worm disease to avian influenza. We are not fairies.

Our constitution-sometimes you treat it like a charm with the name ”UUD 45”-does not come from the fairy world. It was formulated by some people coming from a group of concrete people and could be ill.

It could even come from uncertainty. When a number of people-now they are called the foundingfathers of the Republic of Indonesia-met in a building in Jakarta in July 1945 as committee members for “independence preparation”, they were considered representing people movement of “Indonesia”. But there is difficult question related to this: How could it be possible, if at that time the border of “Indonesia” had not been set?

Who ever decided that they represented Indonesian people? The ruling Japanese military who at that time was on the brink of losing in the Pacific War of course listened to some advisors—including Bung Karno and Bung Hatta—about who should be invited to the preparation meeting. At the end the de facto power determined, complete with the urging that I don’t know who that should be made responsible to, something common in the emergency and hurry period like that.

In other word, Indonesia was a mix of two kinds of time. The first was the one that could not be marked-time flew alongside with our wish and the elders to be in one country. The second was the time that could be marked as a point in time, for example August 17, 1945.

That the second time then outlasted its own limitation-August 17, 1945 only lasted for 24 hours but it seemed to last until 2007—it means that the first time was the determined one. The wish to be in one nation grew before that time, and kept on growing after that day. The word ”45” that you often considered mystical had its meaning just because there was something unstopped there.

The Generals who lost your power and pleasure, do you know, the constitution you called ”UUD 45” is just a formulation of many interests that had not been entirely fulfilled? The number ”45” is just a moment; the script signed on that day was also a moment. The time is limited. Indeed the moment at its turn could change like a monument. But when it happened in the limitation of the moment, it could get the role and meaning because it was related with the unmarked time, time that happened before and after that, the time that I don’t know when it began and ended, time that caused this country is written in history-and being in the possible situation.

A monument, as we know, is not merely a thing. It becomes a thing when it is no longer interpreted.

A constitution-different from a poetry-indeed intend to restrict interpretation that is almost unlimited. But a constitution will be outdated if it is not seen as a limited text that is restricting—and in that position it is actually the “moment” of the need for justice that never ends inside the heart of everybody. Every constitution is just an answer that someday because of the justice order that is always promised, justice will prevail.

In other words, oh ye generals who lost your power, every constitution is a temporary constitution. As a sign that the members of the independece preparation committee and the formula makers of the 1945 Constitution were not magical creatures, they inserted a simple, humble and wise sentence: there the opportunity was provided that one day this constitution could be revised. ”Don’t ever worship letters!” said Bung Karno one day.

Generals, it is 2007. After going through a long period of time-also with a long error record—the letters were partially changed drastically. In the amendment that is now exists, a president is not allowed to keep on ruling for long period of time; we have seen the effects under the late President Soekarno and President Soeharto. Human rights are stated strictly, after so many people that you killed and put behind bars just because they had different opinion with the authority. Racial discrimination was cleared out. The President is directly elected by people. General election runs freely. Centralistic uphold to regions was practically released….

Generals who lost your power, the amendment is indeed not perfect. But remember: those who made the changes are people chosen legislators-who indeed do not care about the whinning old men voices. And do we forget about the students has passed away to set up the path for the legislators to work in Senayan, until the 1945 Constitution is improved and democracy is established?

Generals who lost your power and pleasure, please understand who you are! The blood that flowed in Trisakti campus, Atmajaya campus, in many parts of the road all over our motherland, shows that the amendment of the constitution did not also come from the sky, but from anger and grief. Once again justice orders, and the day bear the promises—in the struggle that was even tighter than when the 1945 Constitution was formulated in a solemn building in the comfortable Menteng, in Jakarta that was guarded by Japanese military.

~Tempo magazine, Edition. 49/XXXV/January 29 – February 04 2007~

Source: http://caping.wordpress.com/2007/01/29/konstitusi/
Photograph courtesy of: http://www.mpr.go.id/materi/uud.jpg
Translated by  Yogi Djatnika (MKRI)