The issue of extending the presidential term limit has been a heated topic ever since several politicians within the People's' Representative Council come up with the idea to amend the limit of the term within the Indonesian Constitution of 1945.Â
This idea is not taken lightly by several elements of the Indonesian lives including the students and other opposition towards the government, stating that such thing would be undemocratic. But to this extend, do we really need to change the presidential term limit?
Extending the Presidential Term limit will be a very controversial move considering Indonesia's history of reformation and there are several reasons behind why it will tarnish Indonesia's Reformation and Democracy.
First one being, undoing years of progress on moving Indonesia's towards a more Democratic nation after the downfall of the New Order Regime led by President Suharto. With the amendment of such presidential term, it will lead towards a more executive heavy constitution and led to a more tyrannical government that will undo the progress of reformation that was set by the previous governance.Â
Another worst case scenario of this is that the executive will also work together with the legislative to create a coalition of tyranny and will interfere with the judicial system that will create legal problems in the future.
Second is that a regeneration of bureaucrat, politician, and statesman will be halted or in the worst-case scenario nonexistence, due to the old elements still holding the positions and power. With holding the positions and power they have the ability to reject any newcomers and not pass down the knowledges and experiences so that the new generation of bureaucrat, politician, and statesman can adapt it to suit their style of governance and the era. This will not only happen at the national level, but will happen within the regional level as there will be demands by the regional representatives to also extend the term limit for regional government leaders.
Third is that this will create an international implication. International implication in this case, focus mostly on how the other nations perceive Indonesia. If such idea is put in place, then nations will look on Indonesia with doubts whether we can be a partner or an enemy.
Lastly is that this will create a much larger polarization and chaos in the civil society as a whole that will disrupt Indonesia for years to come.
We can see that the move to extend presidential term limit is purely a political intention rather being one that is benefitting the society as a whole. The idea of such extension will need to be studied again due to the mostly negative impact towards Indonesia.
Indonesian Translation
Isu perpanjangan masa jabatan presiden menjadi perbincangan hangat sejak beberapa politisi di Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat mengajukan gagasan untuk mengubah batas masa jabatan dalam UUD 1945.
