Jakarta – Indonesia's national assembly is expected to shy away this week from committing itself on controversial amendments to the country's 55-year-old constitution, including a proposal to cement the military's place in politics, observers and politicians said. A commission made up of 228 members of the 700-seat People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) has been debating 26 draft amendments since Friday.

Reviewing the 1945 constitution is a main function which the assembly, now in the midst of its first annual session, has set itself. "All the proposals are being discussed, without exception," Slamet Yusuf Effendy, from the large Golkar political faction, told AFP. "However it is quite possible that a final agreement on the most complicated ones, including the one affecting the military, will be delayed."

Constitutional law expert Andrew Ellis, from the National Democratic Institute, said disagreement continued over many of the proposals. "There is a general mood around, that where there are alternatives, most people would not push it for a vote this year," he said on Friday.

Among the most controversial of the proposals is a draft amendment which would let the military keep its 38 seats in parliament. Initial predictions were that the amendment would be passed, with the two largest parties in the MPR, the Indonesian Democracy Party of Struggle (PDIP), and Golkar, reportedly favouring writing into law the military keep its seats at least until 2004.

However there has been intense criticism of the proposal, as the military's removal from politics has been a key platform of Indonesia's reform movement. "Never before in our history has the military's place in parliament been guaranteed in the constitution, even under the old Suharto regime," said Hendardi, who heads a legal aid and human rights organisation. "It is extremely dangerous."

The proposed amendment states "groups that do not have voting rights in the general elections" should hold seats in the MPR. The military, which has cut back the 75 seats it held in the assembly under former president Suharto to 38, argues that since it does not vote in elections it needs a political voice by other means.

However Hendardi said the proposal was illogical, as the military was meant to be under the president, as a tool of the executive branch of government. "So how can we have the military sit in the MPR, an institution to which the president is accountable? It means we will have the military demanding accountability from the president," he said.

Golkar's Effendy said it was premature to predict the assembly's final decision on the proposal, Smita Notosusanto, of the non-government Centre for Electoral Reform, believed the amendment would go through.

In no doubt of being passed, according to Notosusanto, are laws guaranteeing greater autonomy to Indonesia's 27 provinces, with special autonomy for Aceh and Irian Jaya, both embroiled in separatist struggles. The autonomy laws were passed late last year by the House of Representatives (DPR), whose 500 members also sit in the assembly.

Notosusanto said a proposal for a bi-cameral parliament was also likely to be passed, as were amendments on the inclusion of a lengthy human rights charter, the abolition of the Supreme Advisory Council, and a guarantee of the independence of the central bank.

She said it was still hard to predict whether a proposal for direct presidential elections would be accepted, saying political parties were "changing their minds every day." Under the current system the MPR – made up of 462 popularly elected members and 238 appointees – elects the president.

Pressure has been mounting from outside the assembly for the direct election system to be adopted. A proposal to insert a clause obliging Indonesia's Muslims to adhere to Koranic teachings has been roundly condemned by at least three parties, including Golkar, PDIP and the 58-seat National Awakening faction. The three parties, who hold 425 seats, say the proposed clause threatens Indonesia's secular, pluralist nature.

The commission debating the amendments is due to present its conclusions to the entire assembly on Tuesday. Final amendments will be put to the assembly for ratification on Friday, bringing it's annual session to a close.