|
12/17/02
(All quotations about Megawati by Indonesian analysts are
taken from Washington Post Foreign Service, Thursday,
December 12, 2002; Page A30)
To be a president of a country, one certainly needs a
brain. But brain alone is not enough since various
factors besides brain are often far more influential.
In fact with an “average” brain one could be a
president as what George W. Bush, at the 300th
Graduation Ceremony of Yale University, remarked,
"To the C students, you too can be Presidents of
United States." And, as an anonymous says, “"To those
without college degree, you too can become Presidents
of Indonesia."
George Bush and Megawati Soekarnoputri both inherited
big family names. While they both may have “average”
brain, the family names and other factors are
undoubtedly much more decisive in bringing them to
their current positions. Al Gore also inherited a big
family name and is smart, talented and experienced.
But he lost the 2000 US president election to
a man with mediocre debating skills, no national
track record and
“less” smart brain, George Bush, not because of the
help from the Supreme Court, but because of the
personality of Al Gore himself. As the political
pundit Dick Morris said that the Bush’s success in the
mid-term election of 2002 and the potential recovery
of economy as well as the prospect of a winning war in
Iraq could kill his reelection in 2004, the Al Gore’s
ill-fate for Presidency was sealed by the economic
success of his and Mr. Clinton’s administration. As
most people would naturally do, Mr. Gore portrayed
himself as a successful individual and put the voters
as no more than average people. Mr. Gore forgot the
saying from Jules Ormont, “A great leader never sets himself above his
followers except in carrying responsibilities.”
While Mr. Bush,
on the other hand, presented himself as a regular
guy. And even though he fumbled around, Americans
seemingly accept verbal mistakes because they make
people human. In this regards, a critic by Mr. Salim
Said, an Indonesian analyst of military affairs, who
said, "She (Megawati) doesn't know how to make
decisions. She is not trained in politics, trained to
be a leader, and that is the problem," is somewhat
irrelevant. Some leaders are born, some are trained
and some are the product of their circumstances. An
example of the latter is Corizon Aquino of
Philippines.
As Einstein once said, “Try
not to become a man of success but rather to become a
man of value,” it seems humbleness and value
are just as crucial as other capabilities in reaching
the highest goal in life.
The right things
A president is a leader, and the duty of a leader as
the management guru, Peter Drucker said, is to do
the right things. So, what are the capabilities
required by a president in order to be able to do the
right things? But first, what are the right things?
While different countries certainly have different
goals and challenges, the right things for different
countries are almost the same. These can be summed up
in three words: United, democratic and prosperous.
Although the three words may sound simple, they
inherently imply far greater consequences.
To unite a country, a president must be able to bring
the whole elements in the country to a consensus that
the national interest, the national security and the
nation’s future are the first agenda of all, secondary
or tertiary after any group’s agendas. In a
pluralistic and diverse nation such as Indonesia, this
issue is right at the heart of the matter. Soekarno
knew this before he proclaimed the independence of the
country in 1945 when he came up with the idea of
Pancasila where, in his original proposal, he put “the
national unity” as the first statement. His successor,
Soeharto also knew the critical nature of this issue
when he declared a law in 1985 that every group
including political party and mass organization had to
accept Pancasila as its ideology.
While President Megawati may comprehend the importance
of unity to the nation’s future, understanding the
matter and doing the right things to realize it are
two different issues. Megawati, for example, has been
criticized by Azyumardi Azra, a leading Islamic
intellectual and a political commentator, for not done
enough to reach out to moderate Muslims in the
government’s effort to combat terrorism. And, a
political analyst as well as informal adviser of
President Megawati, Rizal Mallarangeng said that she
has no stable of advisers to help effectively advance
her agenda in pushing democratic reform and preserving
national unity.
|
To compare Mrs. Megawati’s performance in terms of
unity issues to those of the first two former
presidents is in correct as the nature of the
circumstances that the nation is facing today is very
different politically, socially and economically. But
it is not too naïve to conclude that Mrs. Megawati has
performed relatively better compared to the last two
former presidents, Mr. Habibie and Mr. Wahid.
Indonesia and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have reached
peaceful solution recently and the conflicts in
Moluccan and Poso have slowly reached peaceful
process. |
|
|
It
is time for public community to
participate actively in building and
promoting national and local security. To
start with, President Megawati has to
address the nation of the urgency of
building national and local security to
the future of the nation. And Megawati has
to appeal to her fellow Indonesians to be
vigilant while keeping the high tolerance
among people from different religion,
ethnic groups and races. (President
Megawati never addressed the nation after
the Bali's bombing) |
|
|
Terrorism
and Our Future 10/15/02 |
|
Comparing Mrs. Megawati’s performance in terms of
unity issues to those of the first two former
presidents is incorrect as the nature of the
circumstances that the nation is facing today is very
different politically, socially and economically. But
it is not too naïve to conclude that Mrs. Megawati has
performed relatively better compared to the last two
former presidents, Mr. Habibie and Mr. Wahid.
Indonesia and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have reached
peaceful solution recently and the conflicts in
Moluccan and Poso have slowly reached peaceful
process.
To enhance democracy, the president must be able to keep
the balance between the national security, freedom of
speech/expression and the media freedom. In a country
like Indonesia where the parliament is qualitatively
still weak the president must also make efforts to
improve the quality of its members at least from those
who represent her party. Mrs. Megawati also must make
necessary steps to empower judicative branch. While
those are crucial, there seems also a need to launch a
national campaign of promoting family values. Democracy is about value and way of life; the ways
people live and associate with each other and the
traditions and customs they carry forward in their
interactions with others. Democratic values embody the ideals that the demand
for freedom is as important as the willingness to
listen and respect others, that to preserve social
harmony is superior to create social disorder and that
fairness is the key to a social harmony. This implies
that the enhancement
of democracy in society must be begun from two
important institutions that have been long ignored:
school and family.
In the context of Indonesia, in order to realize
prosperity the president must do something to overhaul
the nation’s economic development strategy and policy.
Rather than relying on a short term goal, she must
convincingly lay down a long-term economic plan that
encompasses many issues from national industry,
agriculture, labor force, human development,
investment initiatives and so on. After more than one
year in power, Megawati just lacks this utmost plan,
leaving many people wonder where the nation is
heading. There are at least two benefits of a long
term plan. One is it gives the nation a sense of
direction. Two, it avoids a discontinuity in the
national economic strategy and policy once the new
government is established after the 2004 election.
Having described the right things – the promotion of
unity, democracy and prosperity - the question now is
what are the
capabilities required by a president in order to be
able to do realize them? The first is the ability to
communicate the right things to its people in a
visionary and idealist way. As Eric Hoffer said, “The
leader has to be practical and realist yet must talk
the language of the visionary and the idealist.” This
is precisely what Indonesian people need today, a
leader who can inspire them, not only in words but
also in practical actions.
The greatest asset of President Megawati is her
tendency to not speak forcefully on many important
issues. This is good as an editorial in a domestic
newspaper, Suara Pembaruan, wrote a few days ago that
too much unnecessary words from the high-ranking
government officials are dangerous to the stability of
the nation. But paradoxically, this is also President
Megawati’s greatest liability. As a national leader
whose words are expected on many events, Mrs. Megawati
should communicate to the people more often,
appealing to their hearts and invite them to be more
united, tolerant and hard-working. As much as they
need real actions, the public also need good and
inspiring rhetoric from their president.
Taufik Kiemas, the president’s husband and adviser in
a recent interview said, "You don't want to radicalize
the moderates, we have to win their hearts." But one
of the most effective ways to win the people’s heart
is to communicate with them. Especially in this age
of intense television coverage, Mrs. Megawati must
connect emotionally with her people while maintaining
her regular guy persona.
Your
comment
Back
to top
|
The Prospect
is published by The Indonesian Institute. Our messages are
study, democracy and unity.
