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f you read local media this week, you'€™ll find many references to how we Indonesians eventually won our democracy 16 years ago when Soeharto relinquished his 32-year iron grip following bloody protests '€” as well as about brutal attacks on Chinese-Indonesians and the crumbling of our worst-hit-by-the Asian monetary crisis financial system.

Oh, how we cheered '€” painted the blue sky with our high hopes for a more open, less corrupt and better Indonesia. Anything related to the New Order was immediately kicked to the curb, slipped under the rug or publicly disowned.

To be fair, government has been more transparent; corruption, while not reduced, is prosecuted openly; and our press is notably the freest in Southeast Asia.

Any Indonesian can criticize officials or politicians without the fear of quietly being picked up at midnight as happened in those dark Soeharto years.

Mass organizations and political parties have been springing up, new media keeps debuting nationwide and almost everywhere you'€™ll notice the rising middle class that has indisputably contributed to the greater-than-5.5-percent growth in recent years.

No longer thought of as a terrorist-harboring Asian backwater, Indonesia is the latest darling for investors.

Then we enter the election year of 2014. Widespread disappointment over President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono'€™s poor leadership during his second term, endless corruption and a widening income gap have left political powerhouses trying to offer anything to fill the void.

This is where it starts to get interesting. Drummed up mostly by Islamic parties and opposition parties such as the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Gerindra Party, anti-liberal and ultra-nationalistic rhetoric has flourished.

Sentimental tunes referencing New Order'€™s wildly subsidized commodities and harsh crackdown on thugs such as the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) are sung loudly by Soeharto kids'€™ fledgling party, Soeharto'€™s old party Golkar Party and also Gerindra.

So many good people were pinning their hopes on Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, who despite sketchy performance as governor of Jakarta for the past 20 months is much-touted by the PDI-P as the era'€™s only new and almost Messiah-like candidate.

When the PDI-P embarrassingly failed to pass the 20 percent legislative threshold last month and was forced to form a coalition, most Jokowi believers defended the move to court the NasDem Party.

Surya Paloh had indeed come from Golkar, but NasDem offered a fresh perspective '€” and its '€œnational restoration'€ platform might fit well with Jokowi'€™s grand idea of '€œmental revolution'€, they said.

Gus Dur die-hards among Jokowi supporters suddenly managed to find a forgiving spot in their heart when the National Awakening Party (PKB) was embraced. But the camp turned eerily silent earlier this week when Jokowi held a joint press conference with tycoon Aburizal Bakrie to announce Golkar'€™s entrance into the coalition.

Forget Bakrie'€™s long list of political handicaps '€” from the Lapindo mudflow disaster to allegations of tax evasion. What about the New Order'€™s years-long '€œoppression'€ of Megawati Soekarnoputri and the PDI-P that'€™s not only been well-documented by the party but also used unabashedly as a point of staunch opposition?

What about the proud claim of Jokowi as the true post-1998 leader when his star partner is the old guard? What about the human rights grandstanding used as an excuse to renege on a political pact with Prabowo Subianto, when Golkar'€™s own unresolved dark past and Bakrie'€™s business dealings have been questioned?

Is Golkar'€™s well-oiled and well-endowed political machine worthy to bet on the PDI-P'€™s integrity, supposedly drawn from our founding father Sukarno? Whoa.

Now, on the human rights violations that are used by activists to slam Gerindra through Prabowo, it'€™s interesting to keep note that fewer and fewer Indonesians are bothered by it.

I'€™m talking about nine-to-five office warriors and small and medium enterprise (SME) business folks who seldom get on public social media to rant about the government or who did not personally know any activist missing in 1998 riots.

They are increasingly affected by a lack of law and order in daily life and think that a tough ex-soldier like Prabowo offers salvation. They feel the immediate pinch of income taxes and find it hard to like, let alone vote for, an old guard tycoon like Bakrie whose been seen as evading taxes, balking out of a major corporate responsibility and now harboring illusions of ruling the country.

They may or may not be aware of Gerindra'€™s manifesto to nationalize all foreign assets, but they remember how the PDI-P screwed up our economy while in power.

These people do exist. Unless there'€™s a third option, they may vote for Gerindra or forego voting altogether '€” neither which will help Jokowi to get elected.

You think this is bleak? Think deeper and note that doesn'€™t matter how you turn it, there solidly remains a good ol'€™ Golkar seed on each of the ticket, wearing yellow or not.

So, what new leaders have exactly we, as a nation, produced for these past 16 years of Reform? For 32 years, Soeharto denied the nation proper political education and an adequate training ground for public leaders.

Halfway through that time now we haven'€™t managed to fully reverse the motion or even get rid of his ghosts.

Sixteen years ago, in the middle of the euphoria, did any of us see this coming?

Happy sweet 16, Reformasi. Gosh, I need a stiff drink.

Lynda Ibrahim is a Jakarta-based writer and consultant, with a penchant for purple, pussycats and pop culture.