UGM Expert: No Democratic Country Plays With The Presidential Term

Illustration of general election (election). (Antaranews)

JAKARTA - The discourse of an extended presidential term is still being echoed by a handful of political elites. Even in front of the public, they are not ashamed to continue to try to "tempt" other party officials to smooth out the idea that the 2024 general election (Pemilu) is postponed through amendments to the 1945 Constitution.

Gadjah Mada University (UGM) Constitutional Law expert Zainal Arifin Mochtar said that history has never recorded a democratic country ever destroying the constitution by changing the term of office of the president.

"No democratic country likes to play with the term of office," said Zainal in a discussion entitled 'Constitutional Democracy in Threat', Wednesday, March 16.

He explained that the extension of the president's term of office by changing the constitution is usually carried out by countries that adhere to authoritarianism. The state system, he said, usually concentrates government power in the hands of one leader, or a handful of political elites.

"Usually examples of countries that seem far from democracy, such as Venezuela, Turkey, Russia, for example, several Sub-Saharan African countries that push for a third term," he said.

Countries that have succeeded in overhauling the constitution by extending the term of office of the president are also not free from political disturbances. He reminded that Indonesia could experience this situation if it changed the position of president to three terms.

"It is possible that Guinea will eventually extend the term of office, which will end in a military coup. So I mean, playing with the term of office, Indonesia could enter into an unfavorable scenario," he added.

Zainal emphasized that extending the term of office of the president is the same as destroying the constitution. Any person or group that attempts to do so deserves to be labeled a constitutional terrorist.

According to Zainal, those who play with the people's mandate regarding the term limit of the head of state in power are facing a democratic state system.

"Anyone who wants to undermine the current constitution and constitutionalism for personal or group interests, extend himself or extend his term of office, I will say this is part of constitutional terrorists," said Zainal.