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