PPP rejects woman president

PPP rejects woman president

A working meeting of the United Development Party (PPP)
leadership was recently held; one of the decisions made in the
meeting was that the party would only support a male Muslim
president.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan)
is strongly tipped to win the 1999 polls. Its presidential
candidate is Megawati Soekarnoputri, who is both a woman and a
Muslim, despite an allegation made by one of the PPP figures that
Megawati is not a Muslim but a Hindu. Certain Muslim quarters
have also spread a rumor that PDI Perjuangan is anti-Muslim,
because 90 percent of its legislative candidates are non-Muslim.
One of the chairpersons of PDI Perjuangan, Dimjati Hartono, has
denied this allegation, saying that non-Muslim legislative
candidates of PDI Perjuangan make up only 10 percent of the
party's legislative candidates.

Has it ever been proved that what PDI Perjuangan has done is
anti-Muslim? The prevailing 1945 Constitution only states that
the president of the Republic of Indonesia must be an indigenous
Indonesian. It does not mention whether the president should be a
male, or whether the president should be a Muslim. If certain
parties are now against a woman president, this is a great
setback in Indonesian democracy, and it is not in line with the
1945 Constitution. The Constitution maintains that women and men
enjoy the same rights as citizens of Indonesia.

In my opinion, PPP is obviously conservative and
narrow-minded and its sole purpose is blocking Megawati's way to
the presidency. Everybody knows that PPP was part of the New
Order under Soeharto and that the party has forged links with
Golkar. Obviously, this party will support the Golkar Party, who
has nominated Habibie as its presidential candidate. PPP only
pretends to be reform-minded.

I deem as most correct the statement made by the Crescent
Party, which is Islam-based, to the effect that it will accept
the result of the 1999 polls and will not bother whether the
presidential candidate is a man or a woman, as long as the
elections are democratic. This is indeed in line with the
provision in the 1945 Constitution.

But, an individual named Tuti Alawiyah of the Golkar Party,
has labeled Megawati stupid (because she is not a university
graduate), and said she is not a suitable candidate for the
presidency. Even if it was true that Megawati is stupid, in my
opinion, she could always be helped by her clever vice president
and ministers. Therefore I propose that the position of vice
president should go to either Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X or Cak
Nurcholish Madjid. Both are clever, non-partisan and reform-
minded. The people must like them.

SUHARSONO HADIKUSUMO

Jakarta