Experts split on ways to run the presidential election
JAKARTA (JP): As factions within the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) debate the General Session timetable, political analysts are also disputing whether the president should be elected before or after the State Guidelines are formulated and endorsed.
"The Assembly should elect a new president immediately, instead of discussing the State Guidelines," Hendrajit of the Indonesian Institute for Strategic Studies said on Friday.
He said the move was necessary because the country was in an extraordinary transition period, which he described as "revolutionary".
Hendrajit argued that political considerations were also at work.
"If the Assembly discusses the State Guidelines first, then Habibie will be able to block Megawati's nomination," he said, noting that there would time for the incumbent to muster sufficient support in the drafting of the guidelines.
J. Kristiadi of the Center for Strategic and International Studies shared Hendrajit's view, saying that the Indonesian public was impatient for the election of a legitimate president.
Kristiadi said that it would be better if the president was elected before the Assembly discussed the State Guidelines.
He rejected fears that a president could be beyond the control of the MPR if he or she was elected to the post prior to endorsement of the State Guidelines.
The guidelines are regarded as a blueprint for the direction the president must lead the nation during his or her tenure. A president is judged by the execution of these guidelines at the end of their five-year term.
Critics however contend that a president elected before the guidelines are endorsed would have the power to adjust the guideline's objectives regardless of the opinions of Assembly members.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) in its draft agenda of the Assembly's proceedings has proposed that the presidential election be held in the first two weeks of October, before the usually lengthy guidelines are endorsed.
Kristiadi said that individuals who preferred the election to be pushed back till after the guidelines were endorsed in the third week of October had a hidden political agenda.
"There is a hidden plot behind the delayed Assembly's agenda in order to buy some time," Kristiadi pointed out.
But from Yogyakarta, constitutional law expert M. Miffed of the Indonesian Islamic University told The Jakarta Post that PDI Perjuangan's proposal to hold the General Session in one accelerated phase was unrealistic and would only create a deadlock.
"The president must be elected after the Assembly has decided the State Guidelines," Mahfud said.
He said the guidelines were one of the considerations for a presidential candidate to bear in mind before accepting the mandate to rule. (05/44)