The peaceful conclusion of the July 8 presidential election - handed the incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono a clear mandate to govern for a second term - clearly seals Indonesia's status as the third-largest democracy in the world. Those who still doubt Indonesia's ability to travel the path of democracy should now begin to take their skepticism elsewhere.

Indeed, what transpired from the recent election in Indonesia is the victory of a decade-long democracy in Indonesia. The international community has once again hailed Indonesia's elections as an example of a dynamic democracy. More than 10 years since the country started the difficult democratization process in 1998, Indonesia can now proudly proclaim it is almost on the verge of becoming a full-fledged democracy.

Yes, Indonesia is yet to become a full democracy. At technical level, the elections were still marred by severe electoral management problems due to the woeful incompetence of the General Elections Commission (KPU). There have also been reports of irregularities in some areas.

While the people have once again demonstrated the ability to practice democracy, there is still the challenge of institutionalizing democratic culture, norms and values among the political elite. In the long run, the merit of Indonesia as a full-fledged democracy will also depend on the ability of the elected government to deliver economic prosperity and social justice.

To become a full-fledged democracy, Indonesia needs to behave as one. Internally, the government and the House of Representatives should work closely together to strengthen both the procedural and substantial aspects of democracy. They should begin perfecting the recruitment procedures for members of the KPU so the problems that undermined the quality of the 2009 legislative and presidential elections can be minimized in the future.

The electoral system needs to be refined, and the electoral threshold should be seriously enforced to limit the number of political parties. More importantly, the government should begin governing effectively, and the House should to check the power of the government wisely. That way, Indonesia will be able to strengthen its fledging democratic institutions.

Externally, the peaceful conclusion of the presidential election is bound to have significant implications on Indonesia's standing in the eyes of the international community. For one, Indonesia's image as the world's largest Muslim-majority democracy has been further cemented. Within 10 years, Indonesia has emerged from being the "sick man of Asia" to becoming a beacon of democratic stability in the region.

As we have now secured an international reputation and recognition as a democracy, we need to behave as one. Over the last five years, democratic credentials have begun to enter our foreign policy, but not strongly enough. While it is certainly absurd to expect other non-democratic countries will follow in our democratic path, it does not do any harm if we begin to project our democratic face more visibly onto our external environment.

The difficult challenge to our democratic credentials will still come from Southeast Asia. We have yet to find an effective way to stop the insult to democracy in Myanmar. We are still struggling to convince some fellow members of ASEAN that the region needs to seriously implement the provisions on democracy and human rights contained in the ASEAN Charter. Therefore, we need to double our efforts to strengthen our credentials as a democracy.

Fortunately, our foreign policy has begun to move in that direction. Indeed, it is refreshing to hear the statement by Teuku Faizasyah, the Foreign Ministry's spokesman, that Indonesia still insisted on seeing an ASEAN human rights body authorized to monitor and investigate rights abuses (The Jakarta Post, July 11, 2009). While he acknowledged the difficulty in convincing other ASEAN member states, the attitude reflects a more confident Indonesia in the post-election atmosphere.

Southeast Asia is not the only theater where we can capitalize on our democratic stability credentials. To prepare a stronger ground for his second term, President Yudhoyono needs to begin and encourage a national discussion on the need for a new, post-ASEAN foreign policy. The next five years should serve not only as a period of consolidating our strategic centrality in East Asia, but also as a period of Indonesia's international repositioning.

We need to play an active role in shaping the emerging regional architecture. The opportunities are clearly there. We are now a member of the G20; an emerging new international structure that will become more important over the next five to 10 years. Our growing relations with global major powers (the United States, Japan, China and India) and regional powers (Australia and South Korea) should provide us with more room to maneuver in the years to come. Due to his popularity on the international stage, President Yudhoyono is in a position to do just that.

The writer is the executive director of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

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