Health regulation for president needed: Amien

Health regulation for president needed: Amien

JAKARTA (JP): People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien
Rais on Tuesday continued his drive for a health requirement to
be imposed on the President suggesting that a bill be drafted
which clearly defines these criterion for future presidents.

"We should think about such a law in the future. Physical and
mental health are an absolute prerequisite for a president,"
Amien, who is also chairman of National Mandate Party (PAN),
said.

Speaking after a meeting with Supreme Audit Agency (BPK)
Chairman Satrio B. Joedono, Amien also lamented that his support
for Golkar Party Deputy Chairman Agung Laksaono's proposal that
President Abdurrahman Wahid be examined by an independent medical
team was being misperceived as an effort to undermine the
President.

Amien denied suggestions that he was being inconsistent since
he, along with Axis Force members, were the first to advocate
Abdurrahman's presidential nomination in October last year.

He insisted that Abdurrahman's condition in October was far
different from his current condition. Amien even made an analogy
of Abdurrahman's present condition with that of former president
Soeharto.

"It's like former president Soeharto who was recently
protested. Why was there no protest 32-years ago... The
assumption is different," he claimed.

Amien's statements have prompted anger among the President's
supporters, especially from the National Awakening Party (PKB),
which was founded by Abdurrahman.

PKB legislators have called Amien's remarks "harassment" since
it assumes that Abdurrahman may be mentally ill.

Meanwhile, the head of the Indonesia Medical Doctor's
Association Merdias Almatsier rejected the idea of an independent
medical team to examine the President.

"It implies that the current presidential medical team and
other doctors are not independent," Merdias said in Makassar on
Tuesday.

However, he said the presidential medical team, with the
President's approval, could make public the President's medical
records to prove his sound health. (27/jun)