By: Dodik Prasetyo ) *
President Joko Widodo stressed that he did not intend to serve three terms. This statement is a form of President Joko Widodo’s commitment to the constitution as well as efforts to reduce polemics that interfere with the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic .
During the Covid-19 pandemic, it seemed that several people made a new commotion, where this commotion caused anxiety for many parties. Even though during the Pandemic, we had to work hand in hand in bringing Indonesia to get out of the pandemic, which was more than 1 year old.
One of the uproar that arose was the issue that President Joko Widodo would continue his leadership for 3 terms.
Previously, Deputy Chairman of the DPP Gerindra Party, Arief Poyuono, proposed an amendment to the 1945 Constitution to change the presidential term into three terms.
The proposal is intended so that President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and Indonesia’s sixth President Susilo Bambang Yudh oyono (SBY) can run again in the upcoming 2024 Presidential and Vice-Presidential Election (Pilpres).
In addition, Amien Rais also accused the Jokowi regime of efforts to encourage the Special Assembly of the People’s Consultative Assembly to approve amendments to one or two articles in the 1945 Constitution. Amien Rais suspects that these changes will include an extension of the term of office of the president and vice president.
On a different occasion, Former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (MK) Jimly Asshidiqie expressed his disagreement with the idea. According to him, Indonesia does not need an extension of the presidential term. Even if there is an idea of a limited change to the Constitution, then do not link it to the issue of a three-term presidential term.
This expert on constitutional law also reminded the public not to be provoked by this discourse. This is a bad idea in every way and is just being rolled out as a trap. Where the NKRI does not need an extension of the term of office at all.
Meanwhile, President Jokowi also emphasized his stance, that he was a president who was directly elected by the Indonesian people based on the constitution. Therefore, his government will run perpendicular to the constitution.
Jokowi also emphasized that he had absolutely no intention of becoming president for 3 terms. The 1945 Constitution regulates two terms of office for the president, which of course must be obeyed together.
The former governor of DKI Jakarta said that in the midst of a pandemic like this time, all parties should be able to prevent new uproar and together with all elements of the nation to work hand in hand to take Indonesia out of the pandemic crisis towards a new leap of progress.
The issue that Amien Rais had raised, apparently has been denied by constitutional law expert Yusril Ihza Mahendra.
Initially, Yusril only talked about the first amendment to the 1945 Constitution (1999) which changed the provisions of Article 7 of the 45 Constitution in which the president and vice president only served a maximum of two terms of office, namely for 10 years. The amendment, according to Yusril, closes the opportunity for a president to hold office for up to 3 terms, unless an amendment has been made to the provisions of Article 7 of the 45 Constitution.
However, in an era like this, it seems that it will be difficult to create such a convention, given the many factors, such as the trauma of the perpetuation of power in the hands of one person and the swift votes of the opposition.
On different occasions , Arsul Sani as the Deputy Chairman of the MPR RI chose not to take seriously the 3-period discourse echoed by Amien Rais. According to him, efforts to amend the 1945 Constitution to extend the presidential term to 3 terms are only political jokes, aka political jokes.
Arsul explained that the MPR currently has no agenda at all to change the article on the term of office of the president. Never mind the agenda of change, even at the initial level of thought it did not exist until recently.
The deputy chairman of the Indonesian MPR, Ahmad Basarah, also expressed the same thing . According to him, PDIP has never thought about, let alone taken political steps to change the constitution, only to increase the presidential term to 3 terms.
Basarah said, for the PDI-P, the 2-term presidential term as currently in effect is quite ideal and does not need to be changed again.
This commotion certainly made the atmosphere messy, especially since the government is focusing on dealing with the Covid-19 Pandemic, so it is sufficient that these issues are only considered as winds of the past, especially since the MPR has not had the thought of amending to extend the term of president and vice president to 3 period.
) * The author is a contributor to the Press Circle and a student of Cikini
