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