RI sees peaceful transfer of power
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The inauguration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday marked a peaceful and orderly transfer of power.
For the first time in Indonesia's modern history, the country has experienced a peaceful and orderly transition of power without the use of coercion or military power, but rather through the ballot box.
The fact that Susilo won the election by a landslide gives him strong legitimacy in forming his government, unlike leaders of the past who had to devote a great deal of time and energy to purging the entrenched remnants of previous administrations.
Elected by an interim committee tasked with preparing for independence, Sukarno, the country's first president, was given the arduous task of building the new nation that had just emerged out of the ashes of the Dutch East Indies.
However, the first president was only able to rule effectively after 1950, when the country decided to revert to the 1945 Constitution.
From that moment on, Sukarno kept accumulating power and became supreme leader in the late 1950s when he dissolved the parliament and set up an assembly consisting of political forces that would support his continued rule, including the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the military.
Sukarno's flirtation with the PKI sparked resistance from certain elements in the military, which culminated in the killing of a number of prominent generals in an abortive coup.
It was during this turbulent period that the country's second president, Soeharto, rose to power after initiating a purge against suspected members of the PKI, which was blamed for the attempted coup.
Soeharto spent the latter half of the 1960s obliterating Sukarno's legacy.
Soeharto's distaste for political opposition led him to streamline the country's political system so that all resources could be allocated to economic development.
As time went on, Soeharto accumulated power along the way just as Soekarno did, and only deigned to resign after massive student rallies and riots that led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians.
Soeharto's vice president, BJ Habibie, was named the country's third president amid allegations that he had turned his back on the autocrat by persuading 14 ministers not to join Soeharto's new Cabinet.
Habibie helped chart the course of political reform, which led to the country's first democratic election in 1999 following the fall of Soeharto in 1998.
Unfortunately, his decision to hold the referendum that led to East Timor's secession from Indonesia did not amuse the political factions in the People's Consultative Assembly, who then rejected his accountability speech.
He eventually decided to pull out of the presidential race, but turned up at the MPR session that had just elected Abdurrahman Wahid as the country's fourth president to congratulate him.
The Wahid administration barely lasted two years. His unpredictable behavior and independence drew the ire of the political factions that had thrust him into the presidency and which now combined to oust him.
Upon his ouster, the MPR named his vice president, Megawati Soekarnoputri, as president. The peeved Wahid refused to speak to her for the next three years.
Despite her aloofness, Megawati can be credited with restoring relative stability to the country after the late 1990s crisis, and overseeing the country's first direct presidential election, which catapulted Susilo to power.