'Amend discriminative Article 6'

JAKARTA (JP): A group of Chinese Indonesians have urged the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) to amend Article 6 of the 1945 Constitution on presidential nominations, which they claimed was discriminative.

The chairman of the Association of Chinese Indonesian Families told the Assembly's ad hoc I committee for constitutional amendment on Friday the Constitution was restrictive in that it required the president to be an Indonesian native.

"To erase the image that the ruling is discriminative and racist, the requirement should be abolished," Tedy said.

He said the association instead proposed that an Indonesian president be a citizen and the presidential nomination be regulated by a law.

Citizens who are eligible for the presidency must be born in Indonesia from parents who are both Indonesian citizens by birth, not because of naturalization, according to Tedy.

Chairman of the ad hoc committee Jacob Tobing said it was likely the Assembly would agree to stipulate that "the president is an Indonesian native citizen".

An Indonesian native citizen is one who is born here, according to Jacob.

He said the Assembly would suggest that the law on the presidency stipulate that the president should have been living in Indonesia for a certain number of years to assure that he or she had knowledge of the country.

Tedy also suggested that the term "Tionghoa people" be used nationwide to replace "Chinese Indonesian". Former president B.J. Habibie already proposed the use of Tionghoa to differ Chinese Indonesians from Chinese overseas.

On Confucianism, Tedy asked the government not to acknowledge it as one of official religions, but to leave the matter to its followers.

"There are hundreds of sects that practice Confucianism, and they all will seek the government's recognition. Let the people handle it, as far it does not violate the law and morals," he added. (jun)