The succession issue

Lately, the question of national leadership and succession has again become the talk of the day. Discussions revolve around the question of who the possible candidates for the presidency for the 1998-2003 period might be. A similar debate concerns the candidacy for the vice presidency.

Positively viewed, all this is natural because it reflects a healthy concern for the nation's future. The question concerns the extent to which the coming national leadership, to be elected by the People's Consultative Assembly in 1997, will be able to assure continuity in our development efforts, which are supported by lasting national stability.

In the meantime, in the estimate of one political scholar, who is known as an expert on Indonesia, a political vacuum will occur if President Soeharto is no longer the national leader. To support this assumption, the argument is made that Indonesia lacks the experience of change in the national leadership.

In our opinion, this prediction of a political vacuum is caused by a lack of understanding about the leadership mechanism that has been developed under the New Order. For this reason, predictions of this kind should be considered with a critical mind.

-- Suara Karya, Jakarta