"But I wonder why I am always asked about it," he said when asked here on Monday to comment on his nomination as a presidential candidate by the Nusantara Nation Welfare Party (PKBN) set up by Yenny Wahid, the daughter of the late former president Abdurrahman Wahid.
Yenny Wahid and her party have stated they would nominate Mahfud MD as a presidential candidate in the 2014 presidential election.
In response to it Mahfud said that it was an aspiration which could not be suppressed. "That is part of democracy. So let it be. I myself has never been asked to accept it. However I will never state that it is not allowed and I have never been asked to accept it," he said.
He said he had talked with different parties and would not take a stance towards it as he is still a Constitutional Court judge.
"I am a judge. So if I make a statement on it, it could be dangerous. It would be dangerous because I could make judgment not based on the truth or justice but for popularity. That will happen if I enter politics," he said.
He said he would only answer the request to become a presidential candidate after he was no longer an MK judge.
Mahfud said he was actually not interested in the presidency because the country`s problems right now were very huge so that no ordinary man would be able to solve them.
"No common man could go there. Moreover I have so far been working in the field of law. Outside the field such as economy, security, foreign affairs, I know nothing," he said.
Mahfud however said power was tempting so that it could also tempt him to take it. "But I think I have no posture (to become president)," he said.
Mahfud took an oath on Monday as the Constitutional Court chairman until 2014 after being reelected in a vote of MK judges on August 18.
He has earned fame following his rulings on a number of legal cases including to play the tape of conversations between a bribery suspect with some law enforcement officials in 2009.
(Uu.H-YH/HAJM)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
