SBY's unfinished agenda

Iwan Gunawan ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 07/10/2009 3:33 PM  |  Opinion

Indonesian pundits and voters alike are anxious to see the outcome of the July 8 presidential election just as students worry about passing a national exam. This time the election was about a test of the maturity of Indonesian democracy.

From the annulment of portions of verses in the legislative elections law, which made the legislative elections a few months ago direct, to the recent last minute Constitutional Court decision allowing unregistered voters to vote with their ID cards, are proof that our democratic system of checks-and-balances does work.

Now, assuming that the result of exit polls and quick counts are reflective of the official tally of the KPU, it could be expected that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) will win re-election with convincing numbers, and in only one round.

While SBY and his party coalition may celebrate this victory, this outcome should not just be seen as a vote for him, but as a vote for the political and economic direction that Indonesia is currently taking. Politically, this election outcome is a firm confirmation by voters that money cannot buy their votes.

Economically, this outcome confirms the preference of voters for modest, but more equitable progress. With such a clear message and expectation of the voters on his re-election, what can SBY do in his second term?

First, his administration should continue to push for clean government by fighting corruption head on. While some legislators and vested officials may continue their efforts to downgrade the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and disband the Corruption Court, with the extended mandate that SBY receives, he and his political allies in the parliament should push for the passing of a new Corruption Court law, if needed, through a government regulation in lieu-of-law in the interim.

A well-positioned Corruption Court will provide a check-and-balance mechanism in law enforcement in the same way the Constitutional Court does in assuring constitutional compliance.

Second, SBY's administration should not be reluctant in fixing once and for all the populist, but flawed labor policy, which had ended up hurting both the workers themselves and the industry as a whole. A new labor law that balances the interests of workers and employers should be quickly enacted in combination with government-supported skills training and retraining programs to enhance productivity.

Highly productive and skilled workers will not be easily fired and will have greater job mobility to stay employed and contribute to the economy. In the end employers cannot do the work themselves and will need good workers.

Third, with his second and last term in office there should be no doubt in SBY's administration to carry out the much delayed civil service reform. A rookie president may be reluctant to rock the bureaucratic boat for fear of boycott by the civil service.

But, in his second term SBY has nothing to loose for embracing sweeping reform in the civil service. At worse the civil service performance will remain poor, but if he succeeds he will be remembered as a champion. As his current minister of finance has proven, increasing the professionalism of the civil service can be achieved, and there are many good civil servants desperately waiting for change.

And fourth, in his second term the SBY administration should go all out in eradicating poverty. While the current targeted cash subsidies for the poor and the provision of free education have provided cushions for the poor and their children to live and continue schooling in economic hard times, these policies are merely scratching the surface of the problem.

Implementation of large projects aimed at fixing and improving critical infrastructure and creating employment at the same time, for instance, needs to be accelerated.

The current global economic crisis also shows that Indonesia with its large domestic market and localized economy has much greater resilience then many other countries who have made themselves dependent on export markets. Therefore, improvement of domestic production and consumption for an economy as large as Indonesia should not be understated.

There is unfortunately no simple recipe to achieving all of the above with guaranteed success. But the outcome of this election, again assuming that pollsters were correct in their statistical prediction, has given SBY a mandate to Continue!, just as his own campaign slogan says.

As the saying goes: "Leaders are just a reflection of the people they lead". So, if the people of Indonesia have been decisive in giving SBY a second term mandate to lead them, it is time for SBY to be as decisive.

The writer teaches regional development studies at the University of Indonesia and Bogor Institute of Agriculture.

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