Scholar opposes presidential ruling amendment

Scholar opposes presidential ruling amendment

JAKARTA (JP): A constitutional law professor lashed out on
Tuesday at a proposal to amend Article 8 of the 1945 Constitution
on the crucial role of the vice president.

Bagir Manan of the Bandung-based Padjadjaran University said
on the sidelines of a People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) ad hoc
commission session here that he suspected political motives
behind the plan, targeted at Megawati Soekarnoputri.

"That's so. It's not fair if an amendment to the article is
demanded because certain politicians do not like Megawati," Bagir
said.

The article stipulates that if the president is incapacitated,
the vice president will take over the government top job. Bagir
said the article was both commonplace and universally applied.

He was commenting on House of Representatives Speaker Akbar
Tandjung's statement, who said on Tuesday that Article 8 needed
amending since the current president and vice president had not
been elected in a package.

"If it's not a package, the vice president does not
automatically replace the president if the latter is
incapacitated," said Akbar, who is also chairman of the Golkar
Party.

He said such an amendment would be unnecessary if the current
system of electing the president was changed into one where he or
she was elected directly.

The loose coalition of Muslim-based parties known as the "axis
force" was the first group to raise the idea to amend the ruling.
Assembly Speaker Amien Rais, who also chairs the National Mandate
Party (PAN), has supported the proposal.

Amien said the appointment of B.J. Habibie to the presidential
post replacing Soeharto in 1998 taught Indonesia that an
automatic transfer of power (from president to vice president)
raised legitimacy concerns. The vice president, he said, was not
mandated by the Assembly to lead the country.

Bagir insisted that the president and vice president were
elected in a single package, saying that when the Assembly
members elected a vice president, they acknowledged Article 8.

He admitted that the Assembly had the right to amend the
Constitution, but urged that it should heed the public and
refrain from taking decisions arbitrarily.

However, Bagir agreed that in the unique situation in which
both president and vice president were incapacitated, the
Assembly and House speakers could take over to prepare for the
next presidential election.

He suggested that a ruling on presidential elections be
included in the Constitution instead of an Assembly decree or a
law, which were inferior.

According to the 1973 Assembly decree, under the circumstances
of both president and vice president becoming incapacitated then
executive duties would be led by a triumvirate of the foreign
affairs minister, home affairs minister and the Indonesian
Military chief.

The decree stipulates that they be given three months to elect
a new president. (jun)