School graduate may fit presidency

JAKARTA: National Mandate Party (PAN) Chairman Amien Rais suggested here on Tuesday that politicians adopt a flexible stand on the minimum education requirement for presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Amien argued that while a university degree was no guarantee of a good leader, as evidenced by the number of the nation's prominent leaders who do not have a degree.

"So, let's be flexible about the minimum education requirements. Indeed, even a professor may lack leadership skills," Amien, who is also the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker.

Amien earned a doctorate from a university in the United States.

His statement came amid a debate sparked by Golkar, which proposed that presidential and vice presidential candidates be university graduates. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), whose leader and incumbent President Megawati Soekarnoputri never earned a university degree, rejected the proposal. -- Antara