Everyone eligible to become VP

Everyone eligible to become VP

From Suara Karya

In the run-up to the special session of the People's Consultative Assembly, who will be the vice presidential candidates has become a hot topic of discussion, particularly among legislators. That people find this matter of great interest is quite natural in view of the following: 1. President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid's administration has failed to implement something very significant to the people, to borrow from Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Worse still, many policies issued by the President have deviated from the reform movement outlined by the students. 2. Gus Dur has failed to eradicate corruption, collusion and nepotism, one of the items on the reform agenda. With Gus Dur as President corruption, collusion and nepotism have, instead, found fertile ground, as evidenced by the uncovering of corruption, collusion and nepotism cases such as the BLBI case, the Bulog case, the Brunei case, etc. It is quite a strange coincidence that Gus Dur has been implicated in all these cases. Who knows, maybe there will be another case uncovered later related to his official trips abroad. Reportedly he has spent huge amounts of money traveling overseas. 3. The upcoming special session of the Assembly has agreed to seek the accountability of the President. If Gus Dur is impeached, automatically and constitutionally Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri will take over as president, therefore leaving the vice presidential seat vacant.

As a layman, I believe that this vacant vice presidential seat will become a bone of contention among the factions in the Assembly. It is likely that there will be a ruling excluding people who are not from political parties from taking part in the vice presidential race. In this context, it must be borne in mind that the 1945 Constitution stipulates that all Indonesian citizens who have fulfilled certain requirements have the same rights when it comes to being nominated for vice president.

It is advisable, therefore, that the Assembly and the House of Representatives allow nonparty men and women to be nominated for vice president, otherwise it will run counter to the spirit of democracy in Indonesia.

Ordinary people will accept anyone who becomes vice president as long as there is good cooperation between the president and the vice president in implementing reform and finding a solution to the protracted crisis.

To ensure that Megawati's administration is solid, she must have a good deputy. Therefore all Indonesian citizens, including active and retired military personnel, should be allowed to be nominated as vice presidential candidates.

MUCHIBIN

Jakarta