Limitation on presidential service

Limitation on presidential service

Discussions on the need to limit the presidential office to only two successive terms has been debated for years. The latest occasion was in a seminar organized by the National Brotherhood Foundation in Surabaya last week.

Dr. M. Budhyatna, a political science professor at the University of Indonesia, thought it would be a good idea to limit any president to just two terms. But it should be implemented only after Soeharto retires in deference to his immense contribution to the nation, he said.

Some political observers attribute the low number of presidents to the 1945 Constitution which stipulates that both the president and his deputy can be re-elected at the end of his or her five-year term.

But this observation does not always follow as there have been six vice presidents in the same period as the two presidents.

Unlike other high offices, whose arrangements are based on law, the presidency is based on the Constitution. Some observers have mixed the two. This is evident from the detailed description of the president's task in the Constitution.

It is now left to historical researchers to answer the puzzle: why did our founding fathers fail to limit the number of terms a president can serve and why did they separate the legal base of the presidency from those of other high offices.

-- Suara Pembaruan, Jakarta