Expert queries 'sudden' drafting of presidency bill

JAKARTA (JP): To end confusion on reports of a new bill on the presidency, any draft should be given to the upcoming House of Representatives and the new government to work on, a noted sociologist said.

Selo Soemardjan questioned on Wednesday why the government and the House were suddenly drawing up a bill on the presidency.

"Among the people, there is a question of why the government and the House which, in conventional political terms (should be inactive) after the 1999 poll, are suddenly spiritedly drawing up a bill on the presidency," Selo said.

"Is it because the government and the House want to ensure that the... presidency will... have important conditions to help the status quo defend themselves against the reform movement?" he said at a discussion at the House on the presidency.

Legislators have denied they are drawing up such a bill, saying theirs is only a "concept".

The bill drafted by the government has the controversial condition of the minimum of a university graduate for the presidential candidate, which is considered by some to be deliberately designed to kick Megawati Soekarnoputri, chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) out of the presidential race.

Selo, saying he was citing legal experts, said the draft bills from both parties should be given to the new House and the new government to work on.

The former advisor to the vice president also said the elected president was expected to be sensitive to the diversity of people in the country, through the justice reflected in each decision.

By adopting "universal" values such as honesty and assertiveness, Selo said, the new president would gain the "necessary charisma for the unity between people and the rulers, a social and cultural unity".

Meanwhile, a response was aired on Wednesday on the proposal of Abdurrahman Wahid, chairman of the influential Nahdlatul Ulama Muslim organization and presidential candidate of the National Awakening Party (PKB) that Megawati should become president.

He also proposed on Tuesday that he could chair the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and that Amien Rais, president candidate of the National Mandate Party (PAN), could become Speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR).

Amien said Abdurrahman might be "joking".

The Indonesian Military (TNI) chief of Territorial Affairs, Lt. Gen. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declined to comment whether the military would extend support to the suggested leaders.

He added, "It's up to the new MPR to decide, whether to change the Assembly's internal rules to accommodate the people's calls for a democratic election of the president and vice president."

In Ujungpandang, politics lecturer from the Hasanuddin University Kausar Bailusy dismissed on Wednesday the possibility of the incumbent B.J. Habibie and Megawati as the president and vice president respectively for the 1999-2004 term, as a presidential advisor had suggested.

"It's irrational and could be taken as a political insult for Megawati if Habibie, whose Golkar Party ranks second after Megawati's PDI Perjuangan in the (provisional) poll results, was promoted as president and Megawati as vice president," he said.

"Moreover, it would be hard for PDI Perjuangan supporters to accept the compromise because from what they know the election winner would have full authority to determine its presidential candidate," he added.

A politics researcher here, Hermawan Sulistiyo, blamed political party campaigns on creating the wrong impression that the winner of the elections would automatically determine the presidency.

"What is definite is that those who win get seats to make laws," he said, as quoted by Antara.

If the incumbent B.J. Habibie was reelected, "his first challenge would be to face the House dominated by PDI Perjuangan, and political problems entering the year 2000 when the government proposes the state budget," Hermawan said.

Nearing the end of the national vote count on Wednesday, more PDI Perjuangan loyalists emotionally expressed allegiance to Megawati.

In the Central Java town of Pati, some 500 Megawati loyalists pin-pricked their thumbs and stamped their blood-marked digit on a 100-meter long white banner. Similar support was delivered by some 100 Megawati loyalists in Sragen, also in Central Java, who stamped their blood-marked digits on a 50-meter white banner.

Meanwhile, the Semarang Mayoralty Elections Committee on Wednesday sent a plastic chair to the General Elections Commission (KPU) office, to protest the slow tallying of the poll results and the alleged KPU members' money-oriented behavior.

Support was also raised on Wednesday for the proposal of Amien of PAN who said that presidential candidates should be subject to a public debate in the presidential election has gained support.

"I made the proposal myself some time ago," Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid said, "so we wouldn't be buying a pig in a poke." (imn/anr/har/30)