Observers call for laws to protect former presidents

Observers call for laws to protect former presidents

By Haryoso

SEMARANG (JP): Two political observers have called for the
establishment of laws to protect former presidents and vice
presidents.

Riswandha Imawan, a political scientist at the Gadjah Mada
University in Yogyakarta, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that
those laws, for instance, should effectively protect "the
business ventures of the leaders to cushion their entrance into
old age".

Yasin Tasrief, an expert on international law at Diponegoro
University here, said that it has now become an urgent matter for
Indonesia to establish such laws.

Both experts said that, despite the prevailing Javanese
culture, which teaches respect to the elderly and former leaders,
unpleasant political consequences may emerge unless such laws are
established.

Riswandha said that, up until now, the nation has experienced
only one instance of political leadership succession, and that
was in the middle of the 1960s.

"It was not a very pleasant experience," he said, referring to
the 1965 abortive coup of the now-outlawed Indonesian Communist
Party, and the massive street protests which preceded the
transfer of national leadership in 1967.

Among the consequences of the traumatic succession, he said,
was that "not only the former head of state, but also people
around him, including his children and relatives, have had to
bear an unpleasant burden".

He attributed the situation to what he described as tumpes
kelor, meaning vengeance or vendetta, in the prevailing Javanese
political culture, in which the victor of a conflict would do
everything possible to eliminate all traces of the defeated.

"The tradition of vendetta used to be physical in nature, but
now it's non-physical," Riswandha said.

An example of the non-physical assaults against the
descendants of a defeated or former leader is the campaign to
restrict their activities and space, he said.

"This element of tumpes kelor should be eliminated," he said.
"Minor mistakes shouldn't be used as grounds to discard all the
good deeds that a former leader has done, especially if those
good deeds are done for the whole nation."

Riswandha was referring to the fate of the late Sukarno,
Indonesia's first president who, along with former vice president
Mohammad Hatta, proclaimed the country's independence in 1945.

Riswandha said Indonesia needs to establish at least one law
to protect the dignity, charisma and the safety of people who
have given much to the nation, including former presidents and
vice presidents.

Hatta

He said that in 1976, Hatta requested the then Jakarta
governor, Ali Sadikin, that he be exempted from having to pay
land tax because of his small pension. "It was a very sorry
situation. Imagine a man, who had done so much for this country,
had to request such a thing," he said.

The existing protocol for former presidents and vice
presidents covers only certain rights, such as the opportunity to
live in an official residence or to obtain local officials'
assistance when they travel, he said.

"This is not enough. What if this former leader takes a stroll
to a market place and gets mobbed by people?" he said.

Riswandha, who obtained his doctorate from Northern Illinois
University, compared the Indonesian situation, regarding the
laws, with that in the United States. "They already have such
laws, so I think we can learn from them," he said.

Yasin said, that unless such laws are established, there is
always the possibility that "new leaders may, for political
reasons, violate the basic rights of the former presidents and
vice presidents".

However, Yasin is optimistic that such arbitrary actions will
not occur because the nation still upholds another Javanese
principle, mikul duwur mendem jero, which means that people
should show respect towards elderly people, or leaders, by
"honoring them highly and concealing their mistakes".

"Indonesian people still uphold this principle," he said.

He said a convention in the field of international law
stipulates such protection for certain people, and there is no
reason why the convention cannot be applied in this nation's law
as well.

"The House of Representatives should start considering the
need for such laws, so that former leaders will not have to be
subjected to indignities," Yasin said.