Of Salt, Flags and Ch arter Barter
Two Islamic parties are using the annual MPR session to push for the adoption of the Jakarta Charter and Islamic Syariah law. They appear to have failed for now, but could it break the delicate political alliance between Hamzah Haz and Megawati?
November 6, 2001
The old charter is not dead. After lying in its grave for decades, proponents want to resurrect the Jakarta Charter, an extra seven words in the constitution that would oblige Muslims to follow Islamic Syariah law. Last Thursday, legislators formally proposed reinserting these words, which were originally included by the founding fathers when they drafted the constitution on June 22, 1945. They were subsequently removed as potentially divisive. O...