Popularity? Who cares, Susilo says

Popularity? Who cares, Susilo says

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Days prior to the second round of the presidential election,
polls showed that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was likely to beat
president Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Only three-and-a-half-months later, however, the country's
first directly elected president is furious over polls showing
that his popularity has been decreasing.

"I have listened to a lot of criticism during the first 100
days of my term. Some is polite and some is rude. There are
reports saying that my popularity is declining. But everybody
should know this: I don't care about my popularity," he said
spiritedly on Thursday when officially opening an Indonesian
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) leaders meeting at the
State Palace.

"For me, it is more important to ensure that the government is
really working and that we can bring about improvements in the
country over the next five years.

"However, I have to admit that we should always listen to the
critics and try to improve our performance," he said.

The critics have say that Susilo's government has failed to
produce improvements in the country's investment and business
climate.

Even before his first 100 days had come to an end, Susilo's
popularity had dropped sharply, according to a December survey by
the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), apparently due to his
failure to meet the public's heightened expectations for reform.

Significant inroads have yet to be made in improving the
country's poor business environment -- mainly due to corruption
and a lack of legal certainty.

Susilo, once again, defended his government's performance,
saying the public were in reality not concerned as they
understood that real progress would only be made over the next
five years and that the government had already notched up some
significant achievements in the past three months.