Demand for presidium moves into spotlight

Bambang Nurbianto and I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Having lost their confidence in President Megawati Soekarnoputri to run the country properly, several parties have, once again, thought about replacing the presidency with a collective leadership, known as a presidium.

This is by no means a concept new to the Indonesian state, as the nation named in 1965 a triumvirate of Soeharto, Adam Malik and Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX to fill a power vacuum left by then president Sukarno.

Many experts and groups raised the issue of a presidium- supervised administration when it came to the transfer of power or political turmoil in the past with a genuine, albeit sometimes misguided, belief that collective leadership would save the nation, which had seen too many incompetent leaders.

When Soeharto, a powerful general who had run the country single-handedly for more than 30 years, was deposed in May 1998, the need to form a presidium gained popularity among various proreform students, particularly the Communication Forum of Jakarta Student Senates (FKSMJ).

The presidium, according to the forum, would be tasked with running a transitional government and organizing a general election. This idea gained more support during a coordination meeting of all-Java reform student groups in October 1998 in Bandung, when Habibie had already taken office.

The students were aware that although Soeharto-handpicked successor Habibie was much weaker than "the smiling general", Soeharto's shoes were too large to be filled by any individual political figure at the time.

They said a presidium, comprising several figures, each with huge grassroots support, would lend the administration stronger political legitimacy.

The students nominated Amien Rais, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, Megawati and Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid to the presidium. They facilitated a meeting between the four at Ciganjur on Nov. 10, but unfortunately the leaders refused to cooperate in a presidium.

Two days later, a group of 18 people, including Ali Sadikin, Hariadi Dharmawan, Kemal Idris, Sri Edi Swasono, Sukmawati Soekarnoputri and Meilono Suwondo, issued a joint communique demanding the establishment of a presidium to replace the incumbent president. The statement almost caused some of the government critics to be imprisoned for alleged treason.

The idea of a presidium resurfaced in early 2001, when the nation descended into political turmoil that resulted in the People's Consultative Assembly-orchestrated move to unseat president Abdurrahman Wahid.

The Islamic Students Association (HMI-MPO), which claimed neutrality over the issue, formally demanded on Feb. 5 that year the establishment of a National Presidium Council. The council would comprise neutral and independent people who had no previous links to the New Order regime of Soeharto.

HMI-MPO outlined the council's tasks, which included drafting a new constitution, taking Soeharto to court, dissolving the Golkar Party, prosecuting the New Order's political and economic criminals and organizing a fair election.

Five months later, during its congress in Makassar, South Sulawesi, the student group stated that the presidium council would consist of credible local figures from Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sunda, Maluku and Papua. Furthermore, the council would be endowed not only with executive authority but also legislative powers.

HMI-MPO capped its congress with an appeal to Abdurrahman, Amien, Megawati and Akbar Tandjung to resign from their respective posts to make way for the council.

Currently, the call for the formation of a presidium has been revived. But political analyst Ichlasul Amal of Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University warned against promoting the idea without seriously considering its risks.

"First, there is no guarantee that the presidium would work better, let alone solve all our problems. Secondly, it would damage the democratic system, which we have been developing for years, and, which, to some extent, has achieved its desired goals," Ichlasul said over the weekend.

He admitted that he and the university once supported the idea of a presidium to replace Soeharto.

"We were concerned about the power vacuum left by a very strong ruler, who had governed the country for more than 30 years. So powerful was he that nobody in this country could match his political influence. That was why we thought about replacing him with a group of people," he said.

Calling a presidium is temporary and transitional by nature; he said the concept was definitely not an appropriate response to the current situation in Indonesia, which was moving toward another political crisis following nationwide protests against the hike in utility prices.

Separately, Ikrar Nusa Bakti, a political analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), played down the initiative to set up a presidium.

He said that the demand did not make sense due to the absence of emergency conditions.

"I think, our political elite is preoccupied with the ancient Mataram syndrome in which the national leadership was transferred via improper means," Ikrar said. Mataram was a Javanese kingdom whose leadership succession took place frequently through bloodshed.