Boediono: Leadership must unite rationality and political authority
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The 11th Vice President of Indonesia, Boediono, believes that government leadership must be able to unite policy rationality with political authority so that formulated policies can be implemented effectively and yield results for the public.
“Economic policy will only be effective if supported simultaneously by two pillars: the existence of a rational policy concept formulated systematically and technocratically, and the support of political authority holders to implement it on the ground,” Boediono stated during a seminar celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Democratic Party at the Democratic Party’s national headquarters in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Boediono, quoted from his written statement, noted that the experience of the administration of the 6th President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), in facing the 2008 global financial crisis serves as a lesson on the importance of synergy between technocratic policy and political support.
According to the senior economist and Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Gadjah Mada University (UGM), the economic team at that time formulated responses to the crisis technocratically, while SBY provided the necessary political support to ensure policies could be implemented immediately.
He assessed that a good policy concept will not have an impact if it fails to gain the support required for implementation.
“A logical, good, and rational policy concept that does not receive political support will remain nothing more than a beautiful concept on paper, having no impact on real life,” said Boediono.
Conversely, he warned that political authority without the support of rational and systematically formulated policies has the potential to produce ineffective decisions.
“Political authority that is not supported by a rational policy concept formulated systematically and technocratically will only produce slogans and grand dreams without reality,” said the former Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI).
Therefore, Boediono believes that the technocratic and political approaches must be positioned as two complementary elements in the policymaking process.
“Technocracy and politics must complement each other to produce effective policies. Only when the two fundamental elements of every policy—rationality and authority—unite will policy bring the desired results,” he said.
Boediono emphasised that the ability to synergise these two elements is a vital part of government leadership.
“Synergising rationality and authority is not an easy task. This is where the role of leadership lies,” he added.