The silver lining after Susilo's first year in office

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In many respects it was always a case of mission impossible for Indonesia's first democratically elected president.

Burdened by unrealistic expectations that the elections -- read democracy -- were an overnight panacea for the country's ills, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's performance predictably fell short of the voting public's expectations.

He has not been helped by occurrences that seemed to have ganged-up on an administration that was only still finding its feet.

In less than 12 months, Susilo has had to deal with an almost apocalyptic tsunami, record oil prices, malnutrition, bird flu, and a polio outbreak. Not to mention the advent of novel political processes such as regional elections and the new balance in the relationship between the legislature and the executive.

Susilo may not be doing a great job, but the real question when evaluating his performance is whether his two predecessors, or any other of the presidential candidates of last year's presidential elections, could have done any better.

Probably not.

We may correctly argue that more decisive leadership could have reduced the gravity of the situation, however, it would not have completely remedied or avoided the cruel tides that have hit Indonesian shores -- economically, politically and literally.

While it is easy to point out the negative aspects of Susilo's leadership -- and there are many issues to criticize him on -- let us look on the positive side; at the ways in which Indonesia's first directly elected president has been a good influence.

Contributions which Indonesians now take for granted, include his relaxed almost laissez faire attitude towards the country's democratic evolution.

Since taking office Susilo has not shown an inclination to build a stronger authoritarian power base. Neither has he embarked on strategies to strengthen his clutches on the levers of power.

Unlike his predecessor, he has allowed, for example, to let the process of decentralization proceed unimpeded. If he has exploited his position, it has been done with subtlety and grace.

Some argue that this in part is due to his nature of "indecisiveness". A valid point. Nevertheless during the past year public perceptions of vanity and or despotism have not arisen.

Furthermore, Susilo has not, like his predecessors, shown signs of attempting to amass wealth or to enrich his cronies through presidential privilege. That is not to say that corruption in the administration has been stamped out, but certainly rumors of Susilo attempting to enrich himself are almost unheard of.

These two bottom-line qualities have been wanting in past presidents.

Another factor to take into account has been the experience of more-established democracies, such as the United States, which consistently sees a pattern of trial and error in a president's initial year in office, and even the first term for that matter. That is why we see so many American presidents perform better in their second term.

Compared to his predecessors, Susilo has also been the most adept at engaging the public to the point that one would think that he is already on the campaign trail for 2009. The only person that came close in this respect, was president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid. However Gus Dur talked so much and with such incoherency that he ended up being seen as a joke in some circles.

The interesting thing to watch in the second year of Susilo's presidency is how far his smooth talk and likable demeanor can sustain a degree of trust and optimism among a nation that is falling into economic dire straits.

It will also be interesting to examine whether the President will begin to consolidate his own power base to counter the growing pressure from major political parties.

To summarize his performance one would have to say "Not bad, but certainly not good." There is room for improvement, Susilo, but the public has not given up on you yet.