Jakarta – Some 200 students from Jakarta and its environs staged another rally outside the legislative assembly building here Thursday to press for the completion of the latest round of constitutional amendments by the Annual Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

The students, hailing from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), University of Indonesia (UI) and the State University of Jakarta (UNJ), released a number of black mice.

"These [mice] are the symbol of legislators who reject the formation of a commission on the constitution and who are fit to become MPR mice only," chief of the IPB's student executive board, Atang P, said to Antara He said the students would keep on taking to the streets during the 10-day Annual Session to remind the MPR members of their promises to press ahead with reform, including the setting up of a commission on the constitution.

Six out of the 12 factions in the MPR's Commission A resisted on Wednesday demands for the establishment of a commission on constitution, causing a delay in the endorsement of the fourth round of amendments to the Constitution.

The fourth batch of amendments is crucial because its endorsement will ensure the passage of several bills, including the political bills designed to guarantee a more democratic Indonesia.

The student executive boards (BEM) from institutes of higher learning in Jakarta and its environs said they would stage a mass rally on Friday involving thousands of students.

The students said the New Order regime had used the 1945 Constitution to retain its power at the expense of all aspects of life, leading to a multidimensional crisis.

Atang said that to enable the nation to emerge from the crisis, there is no alternative but to amend the 1945 Constitution during this year's annual session of the MPR, the country's supreme lawmaking body.