Younger leaders to wait until 2003: Feisal

JAKARTA (JP): Armed Forces chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung hinted yesterday that the "young generation" would have to wait until 2003 to take over the national leadership.

While opening the organization of retired Armed Forces members children (FKPPI) executive board meeting in Bandung, West Java, Feisal said Indonesia's new leaders would emerge probably within the next six years.

He said an immediate transfer of leadership to the country's prodigies could be risky because the nation was now at a critical junction heading into the new century.

"In such changing conditions, transitional risks will occur and they can adversely affect the continuation of our development program," Feisal was quoted by Antara as saying.

Indonesia's present leaders are from the 1945 and 1966 generations and they are in their late 70s and late 50s respectively.

President Soeharto is one of a few surviving figures from the 1945 generation.

Feisal said the Armed Forces would ensure next year's People's Consultative Assembly general assembly went ahead safely.

The assembly will convene in March next year to draw up the State Policy Guidelines and elect a president and a vice president for the 1998-2003 term.

"The Armed Forces is keen to make the coming general session a success so Indonesia can avoid the detrimental effects of the transitional period," he said.

Soeharto, who took office in 1968, has so far found no real challengers in the race for presidency.

Meanwhile, FKPPI chairman Asep Sudjana said the two-day meeting was a warmup for its annual congress at the end of the year.

One hundred and twenty-seven FKPPI representatives from the country's 27 provinces are attending the meeting.

Criticism

In Yogyakarta, Minister of Transmigration Siswono Yudohusodo added to the debate on national leadership by criticizing long- serving leaders for hampering people's aspirations.

Siswono said a group of political elites that held power for a long time would end up denying the public a say in running the country and become an authoritarian regime. He referred to the communist party's reign in the former Soviet Union.

"If the state exercises power for too long, it will prevent its people from making progress. They will only add to the state's burdens in the long run," he said.

He was addressing students of Gadjah Mada University's school of law.

Siswono said he was not suggesting changing the constitution, but he said the nation should approved a convention that limited how many terms a president could serve.

He said the Americans agreed to such a convention at independence even though they did not adopt it formally until 1943. (23/amd)