Abusive Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments: Indonesia, the Pancasila and the Spectre of Authoritarianism.

This article examines the potential misuse of the unconstitutional constitutional amendments doctrine in Indonesia, focusing on how the doctrine—rooted in the belief that the Pancasila (Indonesia's five fundamental state principles) is the unamendable basic norm (Staatsfundamentalnorm) of the legal order—could be exploited to advance illiberal or authoritarian agendas. It outlines how the Pancasila's sacrosanct status, affirmed by Indonesian legal scholars and the Constitutional Court, implies that constitutional amendments must align with it, thereby threatening the legitimacy of the four democratic amendments made to the 1945 Constitution after the fall of Soeharto. The article warns that a future authoritarian president might invoke this doctrine to revert to the original 1945 Constitution, which historically enabled authoritarian regimes, but suggests that applying the concepts of primary constituent power (the sovereign people's authority to establish a constitution) and secondary constituent power (the amendment power of constitutional bodies) could help mitigate this risk. It concludes that while the doctrine aims to protect democracy, its embryonic status and illiberal interpretations of the Pancasila pose a real threat to Indonesia's constitutional democracy.