Experts call for limitation of presidential term
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)