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strong>Jan. 14, p.1

Although it is unlikely that the 2014 presidential election will produce a non-Javanese president, experts have expressed their optimism that the country could soon elect a leader who does not hail from the country’s largest ethnic group.

Indria Samego, a political analyst with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said that with constant political education, especially among rural voters, the country could soon vote for a credible, non-Javanese politician as president.

“We must start now because it will take a long time to educate the people. Change is unlikely to happen next year, but this country can witness a huge transformation at least by the following election in 2019 if we start educating our voters immediately,” Indria told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Indria was commenting on a statement by former vice president Jusuf Kalla that Indonesians were ready to elect a president who was not Javanese, arguing that the ethnic background of politicians mattered less at the national level today.

Your comments:

A simpler and more accurate explanation for the victory of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Indonesia’s two direct presidential elections is that he projected more sagacity, civility and integrity than his rivals.

In addition, he chose running mates who were administrators with successful track records, not Islamic figureheads or disreputable former generals.

The mystery is why he boldly selected a trusted, non-partisan figure like Boediono as his running mate, collecting a resounding victory that showed people’s respect for his judgment, only to then cave in to the demands of vindictive politicians by stuffing his Cabinet with party hacks.

Whatever the answer, the elitist view that Indonesians cannot wisely choose a president due to a lack of “education” among voters is based on prejudice, not fact.

The real flaw in Indonesian democracy is the willingness of supposedly “educated” politicians, bureaucrats and other influential figures to connive in the cartelization of electoral politics by restricting voters’ choices to as few candidates as possible.

If Indonesia ends up with a lousy president in 2014, it will not be because voters have chosen badly. It will be because political parties have presented only discredited dignitaries and have excluded candidates with fresh ideas who might threaten their cozy oligopoly.

However, Jusuf Kalla is potentially a worthy president. If he is able to stand, I wager he will win handsomely against Prabowo Subianto, Megawati Soekarnoputri, Ani Yudhoyono, Aburizal Bakrie, Hatta Rajasa, Mahfud MD or other second-rate candidates whose names are being bandied about, Javanese or not.

John Hargreaves

As a Javanese person, I can say it’s no problem for a non-Javanese individual to be president. However, he or she should undergo the democratic process as stipulated in the Constitution. He or she should be capable, of course, and one more important thing is that we, all Indonesians, don’t want this country to fall apart. The separation of Timor Leste was enough, and we don’t want to see it happen again.

D. Katong Cow

Samego’s opinion implies that Indonesians have voted for Javanese candidates because in the past, they were politically uneducated. Now, or in the future when they are politically educated, they will vote for a non-Javanese candidate.

This is a misleading argument as politics is naturally about representations of power, not about who is capable and who is not. There are many people who are capable of becoming president but they are not elected by the voters.

It is natural that Javanese figures dominate the national leadership as the majority of Indonesians are Javanese. This will be the mainstream of Indonesian politics any given time.

Jatirokeh

People outside of Java are not stupid! They are mostly poor and our voting system is based on money. Think again, please.

Henry Manoe