Megawati hopes to shelve direct presidential vote

Megawati hopes to shelve direct presidential vote

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta

In a strong blow to constitutional reform, President Megawati
Soekarnoputri revealed on Tuesday her desire of postponing direct
presidential elections until 2009.

Megawati's new stance, revealed by the secretary-general of
her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan),
will likely force the People's Consultative Assembly to find ways
of delaying direct presidential elections as they are already
part of the amended Constitution.

Megawati, as quoted by her secretary-general Soetjipto,
claimed that the people were not ready to have a direct
presidential election in 2004.

"The President questioned the country's readiness to have a
direct presidential election in 2004, and suggested that it would
be better to have it in 2009," Sutjipto said after a PDI
Perjuangan meeting at Megawati's residence on Jl. Teuku Umar here
on Tuesday.

According to Sutjipto, Megawati cited clashes among
demonstrators, especially during Assembly annual sessions, as a
sign of people's immaturity.

"If during the annual session they can fight with each other,
what are they going to do during a direct presidential election?"
he asked.

Her opinion goes totally against the results of a recent
survey by Taylor Nelson Sofres Indonesia, which showed that 67
percent of the people said they were ready to have direct
presidential elections.

Moreover, the amended Constitution gives the people the right
to directly elect the president and vice president.

Sutjipto acknowledged that Megawati, the party's chairwoman,
also told party officials to lobby other factions in the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR) to support her proposal during the
Assembly's annual session slated for August.

The Assembly is then likely to insert an additional article
into the Constitution's transitory provisions to allow the
postponement of direct presidential elections.

Responding to President's suggestion, Golkar deputy chairman
Slamet Effendy Yusuf said his party would first look to see if
the suggestion was in line with constitutional reform.

Slamet, deputy chairman of the Assembly's ad hoc committee for
the amendment of the Constitution (PAH 1), said that although the
amended Constitution already stipulated that the president and
vice president should be directly elected by the people, it was
still possible to postpone its implementation.

"We could insert a clause into the transitory provisions of
the Constitution. Let's see what happens," Slamet added.

Slamet, nevertheless, refuted claims that the people were not
ready for a direct presidential election system.

"It's the elite leaders who are not ready," Slamet told The
Jakarta Post last night.

Asked whether Golkar backed Megawati's idea of delaying direct
presidential elections until 2009, Slamet simply said that thus
far his faction was of the opinion that a direct election should
be held in 2004.

Golkar now apparently owes PDI Perjuangan a favor for the
latter's abstention during the vote on the proposal to establish
an inquiry commission to probe a Rp 40 billion (US$3.6 million)
financial scandal at the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) involving
Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung.

Many critics have accused the two largest political parties,
in collaboration with the military and the police, of attempting
to subvert the reform movement through their moves.

Constitutional articles on presidential election

Article 6 of 1945 Constitution (original):
President and Vice President are elected by the People's
Consultative Assembly by majority vote.

Article 6 A of the third amendment:
President and Vice President are elected on one ticket directly
by the people.