Huge problems await next president

Huge problems await next president

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Over 100 million people are expected to flock to hundreds of
thousands of polling stations on Monday to cast their votes in
the final round of the country's first-ever direct presidential
election.

While recognizing Monday's election as a significant milestone
in the country's democratization process, experts nevertheless
warned on Sunday against putting too much hope in the next
president.

Political analyst from the Centre of Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS) J. Kristiadi said that the two
candidates once worked together and failed to find solutions to
the problems the country was facing.

"The problems faced by the country are very difficult to solve
and both Megawati and Susilo once worked in the same team
attempting to solve these problems, but they failed," Kristiadi
told a seminar in Semarang on Sunday.

Incumbent Megawati Soekarnoputri and four-star retired Army
general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono are contesting Monday's election
runoff. Susilo was Megawati's coordinating minister for political
and security affairs before he resigned in March to stand in the
presidential election.

"People have to work themselves to bring about changes in the
legal, political, economic and other sectors, and I am not being
pessimistic if I say this. Instead, I'm talking about the facts,"
Kristiadi said.

Meanwhile, Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) executive
director Smita Notosusanto said Monday's poll was a critical
point in the country's political life, but further reform would
depend on cooperation between the government, the legislature and
the constitutional court.

"Of course, Monday's election will lend legitimacy to the
newly elected leader as the people will have directly voted for
him or her. Even if the people pick the wrong candidate, the
process has given a lesson on democracy to the country -- a
lesson we have learned through experience," Smita told The
Jakarta Post on Sunday.

A total of 153,312,436 eligible voters are expected to cast
their votes at over 567,000 polling stations in 32 provinces on
Monday.

The poll, whose results will be announced on Oct. 5, will not
only decide the fate of Megawati and Susilo, but also serve as a
litmus test on whether or not democracy has fully taken root in
the world's largest Muslim country.

Over 189,000 police and 37,000 military personnel, as well as
1.2 million civilian security auxiliaries, have been deployed to
ensure security during the election, held less than two weeks
after a powerful bomb blast killed at least ten people in
Kuningan, South Jakarta.

The Susilo-Kalla ticket, which has topped virtually all the
pre-election opinion surveys, has promised to bring about change
in the country, which has been plagued by a slow recovery from
the economic crisis of 1997.

The ticket, however, has been very short on concrete programs
for change, leaving the voters mostly in the dark as to what they
intend to do.

Megawati and her running mate Hasyim Muzadi, on the other
hand, has promised to complete the unfinished programs of the
present government.

Many analysts have pointed their fingers at Megawati for
failing to resolve bloody religious conflicts in Poso, Central
Sulawesi and Ambon, and secessionist problems in Aceh and Papua
provinces. She has also been accused of dragging her feet in
fighting against corruption.

"There is only one parameter to determine whether or not the
election has brought about changes in Indonesia, and that is
whether or not the three institutions can carry out their duties
in line with their respective roles," said Smita.

"The checks-and-balances principle should be implemented in
the relationship between the legislature and the government. The
Constitutional Court itself has been granted the power to impeach
the president should he or she fail to uphold the state
guidelines. So, let's just see whether this process will run
smoothly," she said.