Demand for presidium moves into spotlight

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.