Soeharto may run again in 1998, Scholar says
Soeharto may run again in 1998, Scholar says
By Pandaya
KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara (JP): President Soeharto may opt to
stay in power beyond 1998 if political conflicts among interest
groups continue unabated, a political scientist said yesterday.
Riswandha Imawan told a seminar that rivalry among these
groups would intensify in the last three years of Soeharto's
current sixth five-year term in office.
"If the conflicts continue, I believe the 1998 succession of
national leadership will never take place," he told the seminar
organized by the Association of Indonesian Political Scientists.
Riswandha, a lecturer at the social and political studies
department of the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University, said
various interest groups are maneuvering and reinforcing their
positions ahead of the 1998 presidential election.
The President would consider this political jostling a threat
to national stability that he has painstakingly built and defended
during his rule since 1968, he said. "He would argue what is the
point of stepping down if it only stirs political unrest."
There had been speculation earlier that Soeharto, 73, is
considering stepping down before his current sixth term in office
ends on the grounds of his age. Of late, specially given the
current political climate, people have been speculating that he
will run for another five year term after 1998.
On a separate interview with The Jakarta Post, Riswandha said
these political conflicts bode well for Soeharto's reelection.
"The tendency is that political intrigues among various
interest groups will deepen in the next three years," he said.
In the seminar attended by about 100 members of the
Association of Indonesian Political Scientists members and local
government officials, Riswhanda also exposed the increasing
conflicts of interest between the central government and the
regions.
He said many gubernatorial and regent elections had flopped
over the past two years largely due to local people's rejection of
candidates picked by the central government.
Riswandha and Frans Seda, a former minister of finance, said
it was high time the central government eased its control over
society and give more autonomy for citizens to decide for
themselves.
Central government's intervention in the election of local
leadership is only one example of how the government means to
maintain its dominant role over society.
"The President, as an institution, should redistribute his
power to the people to allow the development of a civil society,"
said Frans, who hails from East Nusa Tenggara.
Frans, now a successful businessman based in Jakarta,
dismissed it as "nonsense" some bureaucrats' use as justification
for governors and regents to be appointed by Jakarta because local
leaders do not have the required qualities to assume the positions.
"There are brilliant indigenous sons who cannot spring to
prominence in their home region because they are not given the
chance to become leaders," he said.
Riswandha proposed the "privatization" of gubernatorial and
regent posts. The local legislative council, he said, should be
allowed to hire professionals to assume the posts to assure
effective administration.
"It has been practiced in the cabinet, why is it not tried in
the regional administrations?" he asked.