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)