Sudirman Said: Don't Lean on the Godfather, Lean on God

Rector of Universitas Harkat Negeri (UHN) Sudirman Said has called on state administrators to anticipate a governance crisis by ceasing to worship the personification of power and returning to reliance on values and institutions. He encapsulated this call in a simple sentence: do not lean on the godfather, lean on God. He explained that the godfather is not merely a cartel boss on the silver screen, but a character of power centred on a single figure. Sudirman listed a series of names who once held immense power in their eras, such as Pablo Escobar, Al Capone, Don Corleone, and even Hitler, who ultimately passed. “The godfathers fade, while good order endures. Therefore, our loyalty should be to eternal values, not to mortal figures,” Sudirman said during a Technical Guidance session for PKS Regional House of Representatives members throughout Kalimantan on Saturday, 13 June 2026. According to Sudirman, the temptation of the personification of power strengthens precisely when politics loses its long-term orientation. He referred to economist Dambisa Moyo, who in Edge of Chaos assesses that politicians are now busier winning elections than nurturing the long-term health of their countries. This condition, Moyo said, gives birth to a mediocracy where politics pursues short-term interests rather than substantive policy. “In a space poor in long-term ideas, the figure replaces the system, and personal loyalty displaces public accountability,” Sudirman stated. He then offered a measure to distinguish a true leader from a mere ruler. Quoting the ethical ladder compiled by Paul Webley, Sudirman explained that state behaviour moves from the lowest floor—amoral, which only submits to greed—then to legalistic, which feels sufficient as long as no law is broken, towards higher floors, namely responsive, moving to ethical, and truly ethical when the policies implemented stand upon core values. “Many rulers stop at the legalistic floor. Yet true leadership demands we keep climbing until we are faithful to goodness,” he said. Sudirman stressed that state ethics need an anchor, and that anchor is spirituality. However, he cautioned that the spirituality in question is not an accumulation of rituals, but a grounded attitude. He detailed five attitudes: first, cease being busy with rituals that end merely in rituals themselves; second, restrain the fondness for exposing backstage affairs; third, stop the contradiction between words and deeds; fourth, do not destroy order and continue to prioritise the people’s needs above trivial matters; and fifth, focus on each individual’s main duties.