Will SBY strive for greatness?

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, familiarly known as SBY, will be inaugurated for a second term today. As the first democratically-elected president and the first to be elected to a second term, SBY has opportunities before him that no other Indonesian leader has had.

In the eyes of most observers, he has a chance to achieve greatness in domestic and international terms and to lead his country into a new era of committed democracy.

Before commenting further, first a bit of personal history: I had the privilege in the early 1990s to serve as executive assistant to former cabinet member and ambassador Elliot Richardson in his role as special envoy for Philippine economic reform.

Richardson firmly believed that, for national leaders to promote genuine reform and progress, it is necessary to set high bars for aspirations and achievement.

As an early advocate for excellence and integrity in government, Richardson made it a regular practice to engage Philippine and other leaders in dialogues to "raise the bar" and establish standards for their performance.

Taking a page from Richardson's reformist book, President Yudhoyono has an opportunity to turn national challenges into national achievements. The three areas in which SBY can stake his claim for greatness are:

First, enlarging the sense of religious and cultural tolerance of most Indonesians and effectively combating radicalism and its violent offshoot, terrorism.

Second, initiating a broad process of genuine reform and integrity in Indonesia's underperforming bureaucracy.

Third, removing blockages to badly-needed infrastructural development to position Indonesia for a new stage of economic growth and social advancement.

While it can be argued that, under Yudhoyono's guidance, Indonesia has done more than a creditable job in combating terrorism, the hotel bombings of July 17, 2009 clearly indicate the deep roots of Islamic extremism. Nonetheless, SBY gets high praise for peacefully ending the armed rebellion in Aceh, reducing sectarian conflict in central Sulawesi, and promoting wealth-sharing with Papua, a long-neglected development challenge.

Yet pockets of violent dissidence, fueled by transnational radicalism, al-Qaeda and other terrorist movements, remain. There is no room for complacency, as Indonesia bitterly learned from the July hotel bombings in Jakarta. Law enforcement authorities must improve their predictive capabilities and tactical methods, in addition to forging new grassroots relationships through community policing.

Furthermore, reform of the Indonesian Military (TNI), should be pushed forward, not only to get the military firmly out of business, but also to rationalize roles and missions to concentrate on borderland and sea space surveillance, staunch smuggling and other illegal activity, and improve peacekeeping capabilities.

The challenge for the national government, in light of its constitutional role of recognizing and regulating religious practice, is to confine extreme views to the margins of society, promote modernity and tolerance in the 21,500 (and likely more) religious schools, and raise the bar (there's those words again) for religious leaders of all faiths to act responsibly in the greater public interest.

During his first term, SBY made an excellent start in strengthening the institutions to root out corruption, garnering wide public acclaim. But now, an ambiguous law was passed by the Indonesian parliament in its closing days which seemingly impinges on the mandates of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), and the AntiCorruption Court.

The job ahead is for President Yudhoyono's legal team to implement regulations that preserve the investigative independence of the KPK, ensure the integrity of the court, and establish effective and independent provincial KPK's. Indonesia's legal and human rights communities are worth listening to on these issues.

Much to her credit, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati began a wide ranging, some would say ruthless, reform of the her ministry, the Tax Authority and Customs. Trade Minister Mari Pangestu has instituted organizational and other reforms in her ministry. The process of bureaucratic reform, SBY has promised, is to be exponentially expanded throughout the government by 2011.

The chronically underperforming, overstaffed, and over-privileged civil service is in dire need of reform, starting with the intake process to salaries, perks, performance standards, promotion and tenure. In its maturing democracy, Indonesia deserves far better government performance than it has received, as evidenced yet again by the lapses of local officials in the recent earthquake in Padang, West Sumatra.

President Yudhoyono recently called for "de-bottlenecking" and accelerating growth through infrastructure development, improvements in "soft" infrastructure such as policy implementation and structural improvements, fine-tuning energy, agricultural and other subsidies, and promoting technology and creativity to enhance productivity. This is serious business and the government cannot settle for various degrees of economic nationalism and protectionism if economic growth and job creation are to result.

During the first SBY administration, such compromises were all too evident and there has been a dampening of world-class investor interest to the advantage of opportunistic countries and less capable operators. Writing reasonable rules to implement the new mining law, combating unrealistically restrictive oil and gas cost recovery requirements, upholding contracts, and not retroactively changing the rules of business deserve attention in the months ahead.

President Barack Obama's "homecoming" to Indonesia in mid-November during his visit to Singapore for the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum (APEC) Summit has been postponed. Obama will skip Indonesia in favor of visiting China, South Korea and Japan. Given the hype about Obama's early life in Jakarta, his enormous popularity in the region, and the importance of Indonesia as a Muslim majority and democratic nation, not visiting tanah air kita (our common homeland) this time around has been characterized as a snub by the media and others.

The delay also has renewed questioning about United States sincerity in deepening the bilateral relationship through a bilateral "Comprehensive Partnership," a menu of policy dialogues and action programs that both nations believe could refashion and upgrade the relationship.

Beyond the ritualistic APEC and ASEAN meetings in Singapore, whether the Obama administration can recoup from the sourness occasioned by the postponement is an open question.

What is to be hoped is that a rescheduled - and longer - visit in mid-2010 can re-establish US credibility and give real substance to Indonesia's importance in US eyes.

By all accounts, the optimism which greets SBY's second term is justifiable. Now Indonesia has to live the promise.

The writer is a retired US Foreign Service Officer and former president of the United States-Indonesia Society who has had extensive experience in Southeast Asia.