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.