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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, August 11, 2002

Indonesian Military, Police to Leave Politics in 2004

Indonesian military and police will end their involvement in the politics in 2004, as the Indonesian People's Representative Assembly (MPR) Annual Session has officially approved Sunday article number 2 of the 1945 state constitution.


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Indonesian military and police will end their involvement in the politics in 2004, as the Indonesian People's Representative Assembly (MPR) Annual Session has officially approved Sunday article number 2 of the 1945 state constitution.

"The majority of the MPR members have changed the article, as ruling that the member of the parliament must be elected by the people," said the MPR Speaker Amien Rais after the plenary session voted the endorsement for the decision.

The membership of the two factions of the military-police and the special interest group in the MPR were usually appointed by the government. However, the participation of the military and police faction in the parliament has been strongly rejected by the public and the students since the downfall of the Soeharto military administration in 1998, which resulted in the decreasing of the membership of the faction in the MPR to be cut by a half (38) in 1999 from the previous figure.

On the other hand the plenary session has also approved to holda direct presidential election in 2004, offering no more than two phases for the public to choose the president under one package with a vice president proposed by political parties.

After the tough debates, the plenary session has agreed not to include the Muslim syaria (Muslim rules) in the constitution.

Concerning the low quality of the country's human resources, which has caused the increasing of unemployment rate, the lawmakers have decided to allocate at least 20 percent of the country's budget for education.

The MPR plenary session was scheduled to conclude Saturday evening, but lasted until early Sunday. An official ceremony marking the conclusion of the 10-day annual session will be held Sunday at the Parliament building.


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