Welcoming another new RI president<\/p>\n
Bunn Nagara, The Star, Asia News Network, Selangor, Malaysia<\/p>\n
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will be inaugurated as Indonesia's sixth
\npresident. The implications of this event's unique circumstances
\nhave been repeated in various commentaries, all intended to
\nsignal the future direction of the country.<\/p>\n
The omens include Indonesia as the world's most populous
\nMuslim nation and the largest country in southeast Asia, and
\nSusilo being its first directly elected president -- and also a
\nformer general. For many, this is significant because of the
\ncountry's dwifungsi (dual function) concept, in which the
\nmilitary has a customary hold on politics.<\/p>\n
Speculation has been rife about Susilo's politics, and by
\nextension the direction in which he will take the country. The
\nvarious conclusions have been so varied as to be contradictory.<\/p>\n
As a military officer, he underwent training at two U.S.
\nmilitary installations and later graduated with an MA in business
\nadministration from a U.S. university. Washington is not
\ndispleased with his impending presidency, fueling talk in
\nIndonesia that Susilo is a "CIA agent".<\/p>\n
Elsewhere he is described as a nationalist, and one mindful of
\nIndonesia's role in the Muslim world. He has lately proclaimed
\nthe need to ensure a Palestinian homeland, a pledge his immediate
\npredecessors as president had not made.<\/p>\n
Human rights activists are chary of Susilo's links with the
\nmilitary, and his involvement in bloody suppression in East
\nTimor, Aceh, Papua and Jakarta in previous administrations under
\nwhich he served. His recent appointment of 14 retired military
\nofficers to his election campaign team did not help his civic
\nimage.<\/p>\n
To his critics, a Susilo presidency represents a step back
\nfrom a civilian-style democracy that a post-Soeharto era was
\nsupposed to herald. For others, Susilo promises military reform
\nwith a firm hand with which to guide the country through a
\ndifficult and uncertain period.<\/p>\n
He is said to be a protege of former military chief Gen.
\nWiranto, and to have been part of the invading force that overran
\nEast Timor in 1975. But he is also known to be outside the
\nmilitary's inner circle, and his job as Minister for Security and
\nPolitical Affairs under President Abdurrahman Wahid was to phase
\nout dwifungsi.<\/p>\n
Much has been speculated about Susilo as president, because
\nlittle continues to be known about him. An election campaign that
\nhas centered on personalities rather than policies has made this
\nsituation even more acute.<\/p>\n
The campaign was long on promises and short on specifics for
\nboth Susilo and his rival, incumbent president Megawati
\nSoekarnoputri. The lack of policy detail is usually best
\ninterpreted as pragmatism, but since this vagueness applied to
\nMegawati as well, it must mean something else again.<\/p>\n
At grassroots level, Susilo is known to sing popular songs at
\npublic gatherings. But since one or two other generals are
\nequally capable of such displays, it is not a measure of folksy
\npopularity either.<\/p>\n
Yet Susilo has secured a solid mandate with nearly two-thirds
\nsupport from the electorate. Nonetheless, much of his popularity
\nmay derive from quite mundane realities: That precisely because
\nhe is such an unknown quantity, his presidential-sized flaws are
\nstill as unknown as any taint of scandal, and he is not Megawati.<\/p>\n
In part, Susilo's massive win was due as much to his own
\nappeal as to Megawati's decline into feckless obscurity. In four
\nyears she showed what she needed to do in office but had not
\ndone, so the people gave Susilo the chance to do them in the next
\nfour.<\/p>\n
If a firm grasp of Indonesia's greatest needs is an ingredient
\nof a successful presidency, Susilo is already on his way there.
\nThis has furthermore emerged despite the digression offered by
\ntypical proclamations in international news headlines.<\/p>\n
Western countries like the U.S. tend to see terrorism as
\nIndonesia's biggest challenge, while business partners like
\nSingapore see it as corruption. Susilo, however, sees "rice-bowl
\nissues" like jobs and education affecting Indonesians across the
\nboard as more important.<\/p>\n
Who is more in touch with the realities of Indonesia's needs?
\nApparently it is the president-elect: According to a recent
\nopinion poll by The Jakarta Post newspaper, Indonesians rated the
\nfollowing issues according to importance: Unemployment (32
\npercent), Education (23 percent), Separatism (17 percent),
\nCorruption (14 percent) and Terrorism (12 percent).<\/p>\n
Whether or not Susilo wishes it or others understand it, his
\npresidency is part of continual change in Indonesian society that
\nencompasses the political, the economic and the social. It is a
\nwide-ranging, evolutionary change, quite distinct from the
\ndisjuncture of reformasi as street spectacle in the late-1990s.<\/p>\n
Susilo may be something of an enigma to many, but to the
\nmasses he seems to exude a sense of quiet strength laced with
\nintellect and integrity. More significant than his rank as four-
\nstar general or his PhD in agriculture supplementing his business
\ndegree, his impressive mandate in becoming Indonesia's first
\ndirectly elected president gives him enormous clout to make all
\nthe changes he thinks necessary.<\/p>\n
President Susilo will either succeed in renewing Indonesia, or
\nIndonesia will succeed yet again in remaking a new president into
\nsomething less than the people had hoped and expected. For now at
\nleast, the hopes and expectations are in the ascendant.<\/p>\n
Despite the apparent confusion and occasional heady excess,
\nIndonesia's succession of presidents has been reasonable and
\nlogical. Each one arrived at the post as a natural candidate of
\nthe circumstances at the time.<\/p>\n
It took a leader of rare strength and ability to be the
\ncountry's founding president, and Sukarno was the man of his
\ntimes. The passionate, idealistic and popular nationalist had no
\npeer in steering a country away from three centuries of
\ncolonialism.<\/p>\n
Then as Sukarno faltered in his later years, opportunities
\npresented themselves or were created for the benefit of
\nunscheduled successors. A coup was plotted, lives were lost,
\nblame was cast and a new New Order regime was born.<\/p>\n
Soeharto became president and ruled with an iron fist. In time
\nthis produced economic growth along with that of the rest of the
\nregion, but Indonesians smarted at the costs and demanded more in
\ntheir quality of life.<\/p>\n
After more than three decades, President B.J. Habibie took
\nover. But this German-trained engineer was never comfortable as
\npresident, nor was the presidency with him, and he soon proved to
\nbe no more than an interim post-Soeharto leader.<\/p>\n
Megawati Soekarnoputri had for years been a thorn in
\nSoeharto's side, while serving as his convenient punching bag.
\nBeing the daughter of Sukarno amplified her fate, which soon
\nbuoyed her political prospects in a post-Soeharto scenario.<\/p>\n
But Muslim conservatives were still not comfortable with a
\nwoman president, so Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) stepped in as
\npresident in 1999 with Megawati as vice-president. Gus Dur soon
\nmade plain that between him and Megawati, she could at least seem
\nto do a better job.<\/p>\n
President Megawati came in with a raft of expectations and
\npopular aspirations. She soon failed to impress, and after four
\nyears Indonesians felt a need for change again. Susilo Bambang
\nYudhoyono is now the person of the hour. He appears better
\nqualified and more experienced than his immediate predecessors,
\nso the hopes on him remain.<\/p>\n
But the scale of Indonesia and its challenges may continue to
\noverwhelm even the most promising leaders.<\/p>\n
If Susilo does little better than the previous presidents, he
\nwould at least have raised the standards of mediocre
\npresidencies.<\/p>",
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