Next president must have 'vision of national unity'

Next president must have 'vision of national unity'

JAKARTA (JP): The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) will
pose an additional test to presidential candidates to gauge
whether they have the vision to maintain the nation's unity.

"This additional requirement is quite urgent since we have
just lost East Timor and are facing the threat of disintegration.
We do not want to lose Aceh, Irian Jaya and other provinces," the
chairman of the Assembly's Ad Hoc Committee II, Sabam Sirait,
said here on Friday after the committee's deliberations on the
requirements for the next president and vice president.

He said that ahead of the presidential election, all
candidates should present their vision on how to maintain
national unity and prevent disintegration.

"The most important thing is that the candidates should unveil
concrete steps to maintain national unity and to seek peaceful
solutions to the problems in Aceh, Ambon and Irian Jaya," he
said.

Sabam, also a deputy chairman of the Indonesian Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), said his committee also
adopted the common criteria for a president as stated in the 1945
Constitution.

"All factions agreed that the next president must win the
support of the majority of the people, must not be involved in
banned organizations, must not be serving a jail sentence and is
mentally and physically healthy," he said.

Sabam was cautious when asked whether Abdurrahman Wahid, who
was nominated for the presidency by the Assembly's Reform
faction, met all of the criteria.

"The committee did not discuss individual presidential
candidates, but the common criteria for the next president," he
said.

The charismatic Abdurrahman has impaired vision, but said his
sight had improved after recent medical treatment in the United
States.

Sabam said the committee also recommended that the Assembly
establish a team to select presidential candidates.

Separately, committee deputy chairwoman Aisyah Aminy said the
body also put forward two methods for electing the next
president: Secret ballot and the so-called deliberation-for-
consensus.

"It depends on which method the MPR General Session elects to
use, because both are applicable," she said, adding that what
mattered most was that the presidential election was fair.

Meanwhile, Ad Hoc Committee III tasked with deliberating
constitutional amendments agreed not to make changes to the
Constitution's preface or to the state ideology Pancasila.

"All factions in the subcommittee agreed to revise only those
chapters which could lead to misinterpretation," committee
chairman Harun Kamil said.

He said the committee was still divided over the existence of
the Supreme Advisory Council and the presence of Indonesian
Military (TNI) and regional representatives in the Assembly.

Several factions proposed the advisory council be disbanded
because it functioned poorly, he said.

He also said some committee members proposed TNI and regional
representatives be dropped from the Assembly because they were
not elected in the general election.

Separately, the TNI/National Police faction in the Assembly
suggested that in the future, the TNI commander should be
approved by the House of Representatives in order to maintain the
military's neutrality.

Maj. Gen. Tayo Tarmadi, a member of Ad Hoc Committee I on
State Policy Guidelines, said that in the past, the military
served the government instead of the people partly because its
chiefs were appointed by the president.

"TNI is not part of the executive branch. According to the
Constitution, TNI belongs to the state and is in charge of the
defense and security of the state," he said.

In Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, journalist Sinansari Ecip
called on the Assembly to insert a clause in the Constitution
guaranteeing freedom of the press.

"The Constitution should guarantee freedom of the press in
order to help the future development of democracy," he told The
Jakarta Post. (rms/05/27)