Expert queries 'sudden' drafting of presidency bill

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)