The people's president not just for the elites

Satish Mishra, Jakarta

As Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono starts on his final preparation to take over the reins of power, it is worth remembering what most observers and pundits were saying about the implications of the presidential elections on Indonesia's daily life and development prospect less few days ago. The broad consensus was that it would make little difference as to who would be president. Forces of history and habit and even more of personality would combine to leave Indonesia more or less as it was before.

Many even welcomed the fact that little was expected to change. For some, that itself signaled a sort of stability, better than the chaos and disorder to which democratic politics would easily degenerate. According to this view, little change was welcome change. The markets would move very little. There would be no lurch towards extremes. The economy would slowly continue to recover. Indonesia was fragile. It could not afford any more shocks. It could do without an undue enthusiasm for democracy.

Of course there is a deeper reasoning of sorts for such a status-quo position. The arguments are well known. At times they can even be clever.

For a start, political parties which nominated the presidential candidates remain without solidly worked out policy platforms.

Second, the House of Representatives (DPR) is fragmented by a large number of medium and small parties. Deal making and political accommodation is therefore likely to be the order of the day.

Third, neither of the two candidates in the second round seemed to be a towering personality, the kind that many look for to save the country from their favorite enemies: Religious fanatics, criminal gangs, rapacious businesses, ethnic bigots and arrogant foreigners.

There is no hint of a ratu adil (messiah) in the coy personality of an Ibu Mega or in the calm and intellectualism of Pak Susilo. For many they were hardly the stuff of which historic saviors of the country are made of.

Fourth, there is the usual resort to culture. Indonesia is governed by a culture of subservience, of respect of authority and tradition. What little dissidence there was in the national psyche has been rooted out by the long years of New Order direction and control. Ergo, it matters little who is president. Indonesians will be Indonesians. It will take more than direct presidential elections to change some of these strongly held beliefs regarding authority and the place of the individual in the community.

According to this view, gotong royong (mutual help), and not the Hobbesian world of political self-interest, defines the cultural leanings of the Indonesian public. The implication is obvious. Don't be fooled by the outward appearance of Indonesian democracy. Scratch the Indonesian democrat and you will find the tame conformist.

Things however, are not as bad as that. The incoming president is not just any old President of Indonesia. Susilo is the first "people's president" in Indonesian history. He possesses the one characteristic which matters above charisma, decisiveness, guile, intellect and honesty, all arguably important in a born leader. He is a president with an unshakeable mandate to govern on behalf of the all the people of Indonesia. That gives him and his future government a political legitimacy which no previous president has ever had. As such he is an embodiment of Indonesia's political will.

If this sounds like a boring and a banal observation, think again. Not very long ago countless reports and cables from field offices of international agencies and embassies of foreign powers all seemed to highlight the absence of political will in Indonesia in pushing through a sustained program of reform; in combating corruption, in counteracting illegal logging, in reforming the judiciary, in privatising state owned enterprises, in curbing the power of recalcitrant district administrations, in fact in almost anything in which these countries and agencies had an interest.

Yet today we are in the throes of an overwhelming reassertion of political will, not by a ratu adil but by a diverse nation of over 214 million people. The old political machines are in disarray, baffled and defeated by the transparent calculus of greed with which they tried to manipulate the Indonesian public.

Seven long years after the first wave of Reformasi, the people have voted for Susilo's call for a Second Wave of Reform and his promise to enter into a new Social Contract intended to give ordinary Indonesians a place in the new democracy. That is the enormity of the change that so called passive Indonesia has brought about, without fanfare, without regalia, without self- publicity, without prevarication, without foreign pressure and foreign help.

That does not make the job of governing Indonesia easier. Public expectations are at an all time high, all the more so for having dipped so low in recent years. The reform agenda is long. To implement it requires the construction of a strong and effective government and policy processes which are both inclusive and fair. Failure might well mean the end of Indonesias second flirtation with democratic governance.

Even if current constitutional rules make a return of outright autocracy unlikely, the inability to bring to the people at large key dividends of democracy: jobs, food, education, health care and physical security might move the country to extremes of ideology and leadership by rhetoric and demagoguery. There is much at stake and the time is short.

The genius of Indonesia, and perhaps of Susilo, lies in providing an unmistakable mandate for reform in a democratic setting, a reform which must be rooted in the equality of status and in the principles of social justice fundamental to all functioning democracies.

This means going back to the reform drawing board; counterbalancing the need for local initiative and enterprise with national unity and social cohesion, improving the quality of economic growth rather than just focussing on its quantity, tempering the ruthless pursuit of efficiency with patience and compassion for those adversely affected by its dislocations, working out ways of playing a more active role in the world community as its fourth largest member, establishing a culture of democracy and pluralism in addition to the rules and laws which govern its procedures.

Such a subtle balance of alternative pressures and claims requires above all a democratic president, skilled at resolving disputes and building compromise and consensus, some one who can lead the way, not by fiat and threats but by vision and example. Dont be surprised if the people of Indonesia may have just made the right choice.

The writer is Head/Chief Adviser of UNSFIR (a joint project of Government of Indonesia and UNDP). The views expressed here are strictly personal.