Analyst calls for greater role for VP

JAKARTA (JP): A political analyst at a military think-tank suggested Indonesia give its next vice president a bigger role to play to help reduce President Soeharto's workload.

Vice governor of the National Resilience Institute, Juwono Sudarsono, said here yesterday that the next vice president should have more power because of Soeharto's advancing age.

Soeharto turned 76 in June this year. He has led the country for 30 years since becoming acting president in 1967.

"The next vice president should be able to help reduce Pak Harto's daily burden," Juwono was quoted by Antara as saying after the commemoration of the 95th anniversary of Indonesia's first vice president, the late Mohammad Hatta.

According to Juwono, the incumbent Vice President Try Sutrisno has already been given a greater say compared to his predecessors.

"Most likely the next vice president's responsibilities will be even greater because he should be able to really help the President," he said.

Juwono said he was confident that Soeharto will choose exactly the right man to be vice president.

Next March, the 1,000-strong People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) will convene, draft the new broad guidelines of state policy and elect a president and vice president.

It is a foregone conclusion that Soeharto will be reelected for a seventh consecutive term, so public debate has focused on who will be second in charge, and on whether the person should come from the military or be a civilian.

Names that have been cited as potential vice presidential candidates are Minister of Information R. Hartono, State Minister of National Development Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita and State Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie

Some analysts have suggested a scenario which sees President Soeharto elected again but stepping down halfway through his term to open the way for the vice president become president.

Critics

Juwono also said Indonesians should emulate the tolerance of their founding fathers Sukarno and Hatta, who never treated critics as enemies.

Juwono, who is also a professor of social and political science at the University of Indonesia, said Indonesia needed to cultivate a similar tolerance for criticism. He said not many people had showed the ability to accepting disagreements with no ill feeling.

Sukarno and Hatta proclaimed Indonesia's independence in 1945 and became Indonesia's first president and vice president.

"Not many people today have the character of someone like Bung Karno and Bung Hatta, who could ... disagree with each other without harboring ill feelings," Juwono was quoted by Antara as saying. "It is difficult for someone to resign from a position without it being seen as an act of ill-will."

He said Hatta's 1956 resignation from the office of vice president was because he increasingly disagreed with Sukarno's policies.

He said he believed there were opportunities for people to criticize the current government, as long as the criticism was delivered "in the proper way and with good manners".

"Officials are human beings, who do not wish to be shamed in public," he said.

He said Soeharto had often accepted criticism and suggestions from many people, both officials and retired officials, but not through the press.

"The way the criticism is offered should be good and effective, in ways that he (Soeharto) can accept," he said. (swe)