Political power must be limited: Soemitro

JAKARTA (JP): Unlimited political power will eventually lead to despotism and therefore Indonesia needs a law to limit it, a retired military leader here said this weekend.

Gen. (Ret) Soemitro, the former commander of the powerful Kopkamtib security agency, told a seminar over the weekend that there must be a law to limit the political power of the head of state.

Speaking before the seminar, which discussed the 50 years since Indonesia's independence, Soemitro said, "we must have a law regulating the president's political authority in order to avoid the development of absolute power."

The seminar, which was held at the housing complex for House of Representatives members, was sponsored by the Jakarta chapter of the Association of Indonesian Catholic Students.

Absolute power in Indonesia, he said, is also fueled by vestiges of feudalism.

"In an absolute political system, a mistake is finally accepted as truth and a crime as a virtue," Soemitro said.

He said the 1945 Constitution does not stipulate term limits for the nation's president. "I do not blame the late president Sukarno and the current President Soeharto for their unlimited terms of office because it is our mistake that we don't have it spelled out in the Constitution," he said.

Soemitro said that in order to prevent a president from assuming absolute power, a checks and balances system is needed between the president and other high-ranking institutions.

"A dominant power in the executive branch of the government will lessen the role of the legislative and judicial powers," Soemitro said.

Speaking about the existence of the many laws which were passed during emergency periods, Soemitro said they should be revamped or revoked in accordance with the changing times.

He also said that political organizations today have hardly any role in the development of the democratic system.

"The organizations have no means to control the president whom they have elected," he said.

Meanwhile Brig. Gen. (ret.) Roekmini Koesoemo Astoeti, member of National Commissions on Human Rights, criticized the political life here, which, she said, is still far from what the people have envisioned.

She also said that members of the ruling elite are still reluctant to accept ideas of political reform.

"They are acting as both bureaucrats and political players," she said.

They prefer to maintain the status quo in order to prolong their grip on power, she said. (imn)