'Military and civilians have equal chance at presidency'

'Military and civilians have equal chance at presidency'

JAKARTA (JP): Recent calls to give civilians and military
personnel an equal opportunity to be nominated as presidential
candidates were supported by a minister and a former vice
president yesterday.

Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security
Soesilo Soedarman and former vice president Sudharmono agreed
yesterday that there were no laws barring civilians from becoming
presidential candidates.

"Civilians and Armed Forces members have an equal right to be
nominated in the presidential election," Soesilo said yesterday.

Speaking to reporters after briefing the provincial chiefs of
the Coordinating Agency for the Pancasila Course, Soesilo said
civil and military candidates could be nominated as long as they
were "acceptable".

Soesilo said that many public figures could meet the
"acceptable and capable" criterion: "There are about 200 million
Indonesians, is (the presidential nomination) so difficult that
we cannot choose from among them?"

The discourse on whether civilians could become president
began recently with a statement from State Minister of Research
and Technology B.J. Habibie. He said the next president did not
have to come from the military. Indonesia's two presidents, the
late Sukarno and the incumbent President Soeharto, were both
military leaders.

Habibie told the Forum Keadilan bi-weekly that people should
not see civilians and the military in such a polarized way.

"The next president does not necessarily have come from the
Armed Forces (ABRI)," he said, pointing out that the military was
a minority group in the country.

The Indonesian Armed Forces has 500,000 personnel, while the
country's population is approaching 200 million.

Separately, Sudharmono said the 1945 Constitution did not
discriminate presidential candidates: "The 1945 Constitution only
says that a candidate has to be an Indonesian."

He said the power to decide whether to choose a civilian or
someone from the Armed Forces for the position rested with the
People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

The 1,000 member Assembly will convene in 1998 to elect a
president, to adopt the 1998-2003 Guidelines for State Policies
and to review laws proposed by political groupings. The Assembly
is dominated by politicians affiliated to the ruling Golkar.

Sudharmono said he new of eligible civilian candidates for the
presidency, but refused name them.

Political scholar Harun Al Rasyid said earlier that it was
time for civilians to take the country's helm.

"We are no longer in a state of emergency which requires a
military leader to run the country. It is time for a civilian,"
he was quoted by Merdeka daily as saying.

Quoting Article 10 of the 1945 Constitution, Harun said the
presidential post should not only be held by members of the four
military services.

"It will be unfair if the president is elected from only one
of the military forces," he said. "A civilian is more appropriate
for the position."

Article 10 of the 1945 Constitution stipulates that the
president controls the four military forces -- the Army, the
Navy, the Air Force and the Police.

The issue of the presidential succession was first raised by
Chairman of the Muhammadiyah Reformist Moslem Organization Amien
Rais in December 1993, only months after the Assembly reelected
President Soeharto to his sixth consecutive term.

Discussion of the issue, a long-time political taboo,
immediately snowballed, sparking controversy. Some people
supported Amien's ideas, while others, including Golkar chairman
Harmoko, condemned his ideas as "premature" and "unethical."

President Soeharto, 75, himself responded to the clamor by
stating last year that he had no intention of becoming "president
for life".

The President said in May, before a group of visiting
Australian senior editors, that he had never sought reelection
and that it was the prerogative of the People's Consultative
Assembly (MPR) to select a national leader.

Soeharto has been at the country's helm since 1967. He was
reelected in March 1993 for his sixth consecutive term by a vote
of acclamation by the Assembly. He was the sole candidate in the
election, as he was in 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983 and 1988. (imn)