Experts call for limitation of presidential term

JAKARTA (JP): Senior political scientists and law experts openly requested a limit to the number of terms for which a person can hold the office of president and called for a revision of the 1945 Constitution to accommodate the move.

Speaking at a symposium on the reform of state institutions at the University of Indonesia in Depok, south of Jakarta, yesterday, Harun Alrasyid, Ismail Sunny and Miriam Budiardjo all gave their support to the idea.

Harun, a professor in the University of Indonesia faculty of law, said anything over two terms was too long for an individual to hold such power.

"A village head can only hold office for eight years. To be consistent, the future term in office for the president should be limited to the same length of time", he argued.

Harun's statement drew applause and comments from around two hundred students, lecturers and lawyers attending the symposium.

Former president Sukarno occupied the post for 22 years and in 1963 was appointed president for life by the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly (MPRS). President Soeharto has occupied the post for 31 years, since coming to power in 1967.

Ismail, also a professor of law at the university and a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, claimed he had been one of the first to advocate a possible limit to the term in office in 1987.

But he said the proposal was given the cold shoulder and received little response, either from the public or the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

Chapter seven of the 1945 Constitution does not place a limit on the number of times a president or vice president can be elected. It only states that a president and vice president occupy their posts for five years, after which they can stand for office again.

Miriam agreed with Harun and Ismail and said that a referendum should be held to gain popular endorsement for a revision of the Constitution.

However, she was pessimistic that this could happen in the current political environment, which would reject the imposition of any limit.

She said the New Order government had made strenuous efforts to prevent revision of the Constitution.

Miriam said that according to the law on referendums, 90 percent of the people must cast their vote and 90 percent of the votes must endorse the revision.

Adnan Buyung Nasution, a lawyer, attacked the government for exploiting and arbitrarily interpreting the Constitution to serve its own political interest.

"Sukarno interpreted the Constitution according to his own needs. Now, Soeharto and his New Order government, in the name of the Pancasila state ideology, are doing the same. And we do nothing," he charged.

He said the constitution had many loopholes which allowed the government to misinterpret it.

He also said an independent body was needed to review all past interpretations of the constitution.

"I propose this because I no longer believe in the legislative body and the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR)", he said.

Sri Edi Swasono, a lecturer in the university's faculty of economics, supported the idea of limiting the presidential term but disagreed the Constitution needed to be revised. He felt such a move could be harmful to national unity.

"It could be very harmful because it could be misused by certain parties to bring disintegration and division to the nation," he said, adding that the term could be limited through decrees. (rms)