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.