Soeharto enters vice presidential candidacy debate

Soeharto enters vice presidential candidacy debate

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto stepped into the ongoing
discourse on who will be the next vice president yesterday,
saying that only the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) has a
final say on the matter.

In a meeting with the presidential advisory team on the state
ideology Pancasila propagation, P-7, Soeharto said: "The election
of a vice president is fully up to the MPR."

Team chairman Sudharmono, accompanied by eight other members,
met Soeharto at the Bina Graha presidential office.

The team reported to the President on the current national
situation in a 60-minute meeting that was initially scheduled for
30 minutes.

Sudharmono was the country's vice president from 1988 to 1993.
He was the minister/state secretary for 15 years before assuming
his vice presidential post in 1988.

The 1945 Constitution stipulates that a president and vice
president are elected in a five-yearly meeting of the MPR. Both
can be reelected. An MPR decree stipulates that a vice president
must be able to cooperate with the elected president.

The team also presented to Soeharto yesterday a draft of their
concept of the State Policy Guidelines. The document calls for
three "strategic efforts that will determine the success of
development".

These include law enforcement and justice; the elimination of
social ills such as corruption, collusion, abuse of authority and
other violations; and the establishment of a just, public serving
bureaucracy.

It has been a foregone conclusion for many that President
Soeharto would be renominated and eventually reelected president
when the Assembly convenes next March. The remaining question is
who will be the next vice president.

Several names have been raised including incumbent Try
Sutrisno, State Minister of National Development Planning
Ginandjar Kartasasmita, State Minister of Research and Technology
B.J. Habibie and Minister of Defense Edi Sudradjat.

But some people have warned against public speculation, saying
the question should be answered by the Assembly when the right
time comes.

Political observer Rudini, however, said yesterday that
discussing vice presidential candidates now was not wrong.

"There is no law prohibiting people from disclosing their
candidates for vice presidency," said Rudini, chairman of the
informal military think tank, the Institute for Strategic Studies
of Indonesia.

Rudini, former minister of home affairs, suggested that people
establish a set of criteria for vice presidency and that the
criteria be considered an input for the Assembly.

Kosgoro, an organization affiliated with the dominant Golkar,
said Monday it supported the renomination of Soeharto for another
term, and released a nine-point set of criteria for the next vice
president.

The criteria suggested, among others, that the vice president
should be from among the ministers and officials of the outgoing
cabinet.

It also suggested that the candidate should be able to
cooperate with and be loyal to the elected president. He or she
should "represent the spirit of regeneration", according to the
organization, hinting that it wanted someone from among the
younger generation.

Rudini said the next vice president does not have to be
someone from the military.

Members of the 1,000-strong MPR will reconvene next March to
elect a president and vice president. They will also endorse the
1998/2003 State Policy Guidelines in the Assembly's five-yearly
general meeting. (prb/imn)