The Broad Lines of The National Policy of The Strategic National Development Program

It is understood widely that to gain the National Goals after the achievement of the national freedom, the National Development should be done perfectly in term of The Design of The Plan and The Operation of The Plan.

In the era of  The New Order, the National Development was done to be based on the Broad Lines of The Strategic National Development Program designed by The People’s Consultative Assembly.  How ever since the era of The Reformation, the implementation of the National Development was only done based on the Law on State Revenue and Expenditure Program, designed every year by the Cabinet and approved by the House of Representative.

The more and more crucial of The National Development Program has provoked the idea to revise The  National Program  should be based on  the Constitution of 1945, namely  The Broad Lines of The Strategic National Development Program design by the People’s Consultative Assembly.

The country of Indonesia is now administrated  based on the  Constitution of 2004, the Constitution which was resulted of the amendment of the Constitution of 1945, done in the year of 2002-2004.
This assessment is intended to describe what is the difference between  The National Development  Program of the Era of Reformation and  the National Development Program of the Era of the New Order.

Assessment

When the Indonesian People declared her national freedom on August 7, 1945, it was designed by the Founding Fathers that   in order to gain the National Goals, a National Development should be done. The National Development Program accordingly should be designed wisely and strategically as  a National Wisdom  called  The Broad Lines of the Strategic National Development Program.

The Yearly National Development Program which was designed by the Government every year is usually called The State Revenue and The State Expenditure Program should be designed based on the Broad Lines of The Short Term (5 years)  Strategic National Development Program .

The Broad Lines of the Short Term  Strategic National Development Program should be designed every  5 years based on the Broad Lines of The Medium Range (10 years) Strategic National
Development Program.
The Broad Lines of The Medium Range (10 years) Strategic National Development Program is designed base on The Broad Lines of The Long Range(25 years) Strategic National Development Program.

On its first session after the establishment of the People’s Consultative Assembly, this Sovereign National League  should design the Long Range Development Program ( for 25 years) and the Medium Range Development Program (for  10 years). Based on these two Strategic National Program, the People’s Consultative Assembly designed The Broad Lines of the Short Term (5 years) Strategic National  Program .

The Broad Lines of The Long Range (25 years) Strategic National Development Program and The Broad Lines of The Medium (10 years) Strategic National Development Program democratically can be revised by the People’s Consultative Assembly, when it is necessary in line with the changing situation.

In sum, based on the State Constitution of 1945, the National Development Program should be based on The Broad Lines of The Strategic National Development Program, designed by the People’s Consultative Assembly. The Broad Lines of The Strategic National Development Program  consists  of  3 Strategic Programs,  namely : The Broad Lines of The Long Range (25 years) Strategic National Development Program ; The Broad Lines of The Medium Range (10 years) Strategic National Development Program ;  and The Broad Lines of The Short Term (5 years) Strategic National Development Program.

The Cabinet (under the Elected President) should deliberately  design  The Short Term (5 years) Strategic National Development Program into   5 Yearly Operational  Development Program  as the Operational  Planning  of the National Income and  National Expenditure. The Plan on the National Income and the National Expenditure should be designed every year by the Cabinet and promulgated as a Law by The House of Representative.

In the era  of Reformation The Constitution of 1945 was amended into the Constitution of The Republic of Indonesia of 2004, which changed a certain fundamental  Elements, namely erasing the mission and the function of the People’s Consultative  Assembly to design  the Broad Lines of the Strategic National Development Program. This changing has caused the National Development have been done without considering  the principle of the continuation and the integration of the strategic  development Program.

After more than  20 years of Reformation era has lasted,  the confuse of among the National Development  Objectives have tended to take place and the idea to revise the National Development Program has emerged.  Prof  Emil Salim one of the senior economic expert suggested The National Policy on The Development Program  should be revised to be based on the State Constitution  of 1945 namely  The National Development should be based on The Broad Lines of The Strategic National Development Program.
Politically the confuse  has been derived from the essential changing of the Mission and the Function of the People’s Consultative Assembly  formulated in the Constitution of 1945 and its formulation in the Constitution of The Republic of Indonesia of the Year of 2004.

In the State Constitution of the Year of 1945 it is stated that the Mission and the Function of the People’s Consultative Assembly is mainly to design The Broad Lines of The Strategic National Development Program, done every 5 years.  This kind of the National Policy  is intended to guarantee the continuous Operation of all the Projects designed,  though the President and the ruling Party changed every five years, in line with  the result of the General and Presidential Election.

How ever the State Constitution of 1945 was amended in the year of 2002 up to 2004. In this new Constitution The Mission and the Function of the People’s Consultative Assembly is erased   totally.
The main changing  between both Constitution is the formulation of the Mission and the Function of the People’s Consultative Assembly namely  is to erase the Mission and the Function of the People’s Consultative Assembly to formulate the Broad Lines of the Strategic National Development Program.

The impact of this changing has been the changing of the National Policy on the National Development .  Based on this new Constitution the National Development Policy  is totally to depend on the Political Party of the Elected President. If the President has to be replaced  by another Political Cadre of another Political Party after the Presidential Election, the Program of the National Development certainly could be changed  in line with the political view of the Winning Political Party in the Presidential Election.

Comparing to the National Policy on the National Development Program designed by The Constitution of 1945  the  Annual  National Development Program, should be designed base on the Broad Lines of the Short Term  Strategic National Development Program designed by the People’s Consultative Assembly.  
Indonesia being a big and large country and the National Program has been developing especially in line with the autonomous policy given to various province. Continuously, integrated and coordinated Development Program has become a crucial problem in order to gain the National Goals.  Autonomous governments have been developed widely, so that without perfect coordination and integration of planning certainly the balance of progress of all the autonomous area will  not be achieved.
 
In fact no one of the autonomous region can develop its region without coordination with other regions. Almost all of the Provinces are connected  each other so that the development program of various autonomous Province should be designed by the perfect  Strategic National Development Program to prevent the emerge of un balance progress among the Province.

Now it is observed  the coordination and the relation among various autonomous region on the problem of their respective local Development Program looks urgently   to be  done especially in term of the increasing program of the development of  Infra Structure. To support them in solving their problem certainly the National Planning on Infra Structure Development  Program is necessary to be made.

To amend the Constitution to revise the Mission and the Function of the People’s Consultative Assembly is certainly not easy problem.  To modify the mission and the function of The People’s Consultative Assembly is likely impossible, accordingly due to the urgent need for the application of the National Development Program among the autonomous Provinces, an idea to revise the Structure,  the Mission and the function of the People’s Consultative Assembly is likely needed.  Clearly the formulation of the Mission and the Function of the People’s Consultative Assembly should be returned to the formulation in the Constitution of 1945 through a Special Meeting of the People’s Consultative Assembly.

Conclusion

The country’s development Program seems to be more and more complex and to solve this kind of problem the application of The Broad Lines of The Strategic National Development Program  is urgently to be considered.

The Mission and The Function of The People’s Consultative Assembly should be revised in order to have the right to decide the formulation of The Broad Lines of The Strategic National Development Program, (covering The Broad Lines of the Long Range Strategic National Development Program, The Broad Lines of the Medium Range  Strategic National Development Program and The Broad Lines of the Short Term Strategic National Development Program).

The National Agenda to hold a Special Meeting of the People’s Consultation Assembly to revise the Constitution should be officially made agreed and approved by the whole Highest State Leagues of the Country.

*) The writer is a former the head of State Intelligence Coordination Agency (BAKIN).