What SBY Really Thinks about Ruhut's Wild Idea

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is opposed to a call for revocation of or amendment to an article in the 1945 Constitution reducing the presidential tenure to a maximum of two terms.

"I and I think all people share my view to reject and oppose the idea," the president said in his address to mark the Constitutional Day at the People’s Consultative Assembly building here on Wednesday.

The president was responding to media reports quoting a statement by Democrat Party politician  Ruhut Sitompul that he would propose an amendment to the constitution to extend the tenure of the president to three terms now that there was no figure who could match President Yudhoyono as a national leader.          Yudhoyono is now serving his second five-year term which will end in 2014. The head of state said restriction on the presidential term of office was the results of the first round of amendment to the 1945 Constitution. When the constitution was amended Yudhoyono was chairman of the Armed Forces faction in the House of Representatives and was among those agreeing to the restriction on the presidential tenure to a maximum of two terms.      "I was the main actor and directly involved in it," he said.

He said he was among those encouraging the restriction on the presidential tenure to minimize potential abuse of authority.      "I encouraged the idea to restrict the presidential term of office, a maximum of two terms," he said.      He said the longer a person assumed the presidency, the greater the irregularities including corruption would be. Indonesia had experienced long history with regard to the model of state leaders, namely lifetime president and six-time president.   

"The historical experience was not good for the nation’s progress," he said.