'Leaders should come from different groups'

JAKARTA: Indonesia's President and vice president should come from different ethnic groups to ensure the leadership reflected the country's cultural diversity, constitutional law expert Sri Soemantri said on Thursday

This idea could be incorporated into the amended Constitution as part of its revision process, he said.

Soemantri, who chairs an ad-hoc team assessing the amended constitution, said that a diverse nation like Indonesia needed diverse representation to keep the nation intact.

"We do not want the position of the President and the vice president to be dominated by one racial group," he said.

All five of Indonesia's presidents since independence on Aug. 17, 1945, have been identified with one ethnic group.

Founding president Sukarno, whose parents were Javanese and Balinese, considered himself Javanese.

Soeharto and Abdurrahman Wahid are Javanese. Megawati, whose mother, Fatmawati, was born in Bengkulu is considered to be Javanese. BJ Habibie, who was born in South Sulawesi, is also Javanese. -- Antara