The people's president not just for the elites

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.