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

Sudirman Said, Rector of Universitas Harkat Negeri (UHN), has called upon state officials to anticipate governance crises by ceasing the worship of personalised power and returning to a reliance on values and institutions. He summarised this plea with a simple sentence: do not rely on the godfather, rely on God.

He explained that a ‘godfather’ is not merely a cartel boss seen on the silver screen, but rather a character of power concentrated in a single individual. Sudirman cited a series of names that once held immense power in their eras, such as Pablo Escobar, Al Capone, Don Corleone, and even Hitler, noting that they have all ultimately passed away.

“Godfathers fade, while good order remains. Therefore, our loyalty should be to eternal values, not to transient figures,” said Sudirman during a technical guidance session for PKS DPRD members across Kalimantan on Saturday, 13 June 2026.

According to Sudirman, the temptation of personalised power strengthens when politics loses its long-term orientation. He referenced economist Dambisa Moyo, who, in ‘Edge of Chaos’, assesses that politicians are currently more preoccupied with winning elections than nurturing the long-term health of their nations.

This condition, according to Moyo, gives rise to ‘mediocracy’, where politics is driven by short-term interests rather than substantive policy.

“In spaces impoverished of long-term ideas, individuals replace systems, and personal loyalty displaces public accountability,” Sudirman remarked.

He then offered a metric to distinguish true leaders from mere rulers. Quoting the ethical ladder developed by Paul Webley, Sudirman explained that state behaviour moves from the lowest floor—amoral, driven only by greed—to the legalistic, where one feels sufficient as long as laws are not broken, towards higher floors: responsive, moving towards ethical, and finally truly ethical, when implemented policies stand upon core values.

“Many rulers stop at the legalistic floor. Yet, true leadership demands that we continue to climb until we are faithful to goodness,” he said.

Sudirman emphasised that state ethics require an anchor, and that anchor is spirituality. However, he reminded that the spirituality intended is not about accumulating rituals, but rather about maintaining a grounded attitude.

He detailed five specific attitudes: first, cease being preoccupied with rituals that merely serve the ritual itself; second, refrain from the habit of exposing behind-the-scenes activities; third, stop the contradiction between words and actions; fourth, do not disrupt the established order and continue to prioritise the needs of the people over trivial matters; and fifth, focus on one’s respective primary duties.