On several occasions, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that he wanted to end his 10-year rule with a '€œsoft-landing'€.

But the plane he has been piloting since 2004 hit some serious turbulence in its final approach, imperiling the country'€™s thriving democracy; the same democracy that the international community heaps accolades on Yudhoyono for building and maintaining.

The turbulence occurred last month when the House of Representatives endorsed the Regional Elections (Pilkada) Law during a raucous plenary session that ended in a casting of votes. The new law states that regional legislative councils (DPRDs) will have the power to elect provincial governors, regency heads and mayors, a stipulation that effectively ended the direct balloting that was implemented in 2005 and which turned Indonesia into one of the world'€™s largest democratic laboratories.

Yudhoyono'€™s Democratic Party, which up until the plenary session held the largest number of seats in the House, staged a walk-out on the vote, allowing the bill to pass. Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi, who represented the President in the plenary session, accepted the House'€™s decision to endorse the bill even though the Constitution allowed him to reject the decision.

Many considered the move tacit approval from Yudhoyono for ending direct elections of regional heads.

'€œPresident Yudhoyono had two means of defending the [status quo] law; [one, by directing the votes cast by] his political party, and [two, by instructing the home] minister, who acted on his behalf, to prevent the bill from passing. But he chose not to do it,'€ Pol-Tracking Institute Executive Director Hanta Yuda said.

It did not help that Yudhoyono hesitated to assume responsibility for his party'€™s walk-out. From Washington DC, the US, Yudhoyono, who was in the middle of a two-week-long foreign trip when the vote took place, said that he was '€œdisappointed'€ with the result. He maintained that reverting to the New Order-era indirect election system constituted a setback for the nation.

In his capacity as chairman of the Democratic Party, Yudhoyono then ordered the party'€™s ethics council to investigate why Democratic Party lawmakers decided to walk out on such a crucial vote. Hours later, lawmaker and chair of the party'€™s faction at the house, Nurhayati Ali Assegaf, admitted responsibility.

In the absence of a credible explanation for why Yudhoyono and party elites allowed the bill to pass, however, the public began to speculate that everything had been stage-managed.

Many suggested that Yudhoyono had cut deals with the Red-and-White Coalition that backed the loser of the July 9 presidential election, Prabowo Subianto, and which strongly supported the bill.

 Members of the public, especially the urban, social media-savvy members of the middle-class, vented their anger on Twitter, posting tweets with hashtags like #ShameOnYouSBY, #ShamedByYou, and #ShamedByYouAgainSBY, that soared to become the number-one most popular trending topic worldwide in mid-September.

When Yudhoyono made the decision two weeks later to issue a government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) to annul the Pilkada bill, many saw it as a desperate, face-saving measure aimed merely at preserving his legacy before the end of his term on Oct. 20.

The Perppu must be approved by the House, which is now dominated by the Red-and-White Coalition, casting doubt on whether it will have any lasting effect on Indonesian democracy.

Others viewed the Perppu as a tactical move by Yudhoyono, who wanted to boost his democratic credentials ahead of the Bali Democracy Forum (BDF), which took place between in Bali between Oct. 10 and 11.

Initiated by Yudhoyono in 2008, the annual BDF has always been held in November and December. This year, however, the event was moved up to October, raising suspicions that Yudhoyono wanted to use the stage to highlight his own democratic achievements rather than grant president-elect Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo the spotlight.

In a twist of irony, Yudhoyono instructed police in Bali to cordon off the area where the BDF was being held. The instruction came following reports that a number of civil society groups were going to boycott the event.

Labeled '€œthe thinking general'€, Yudhoyono has been known for making '€œsmart'€ and calculating political moves, but this recent series of blunders has jeopardized his legacy.

Yudhoyono has never been able to shake accusations of nepotism within his Democratic Party, which in spite of its namesake, is anything but democratic; many individuals in Yudhoyono and his wife'€™s inner circle have been given strategic positions in the party, including their youngest son, Edhie Baskoro Yu-dhoyono, who is inexperienced.

The 33-year-old, who is the party'€™s secretary-general, was recently appointed faction party head at the House.

The final weeks of Yudhoyono'€™s presidency have been some of the rockiest for the President, especially after garnering so many awards and accolades during tenure.

After a decade in office, Yudho-yono'€™s democratic legacy is tainted; despite his being prematurely labeled the '€œfather of democracy'€ for helping manage the country'€™s democratic consolidation.

To be sure, there have been some achievements. One year after he became the country'€™s first directly elected president, for example, the 2004 law on direct regional elections was passed; during his two terms, press freedom and freedom of expression expanded greatly and next to zero lawsuits were filed by the government against the media or journalists.

Yet, his record is not squeaky clean.

The 2008 Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law has been criticized as an effort to limit freedom of expression on the Internet. Many have fallen victim to the law, the latest a graduate student in Yogyakarta who faces six years in prison and a Rp 1 billion (US$81,78) fine for calling the city of Yogyakarta '€œpoor'€, '€œstupid'€ and '€œuncultured'€ on social media.

At least 32 individuals have been prosecuted for similar offenses and the Yudhoyono administration has taken no corrective measures.

On the issue of freedom of assembly, the controversial 2013 Mass Organization (Ormas) Law, which imposes strict requirements on civil society organizations, has been deemed a setback for democracy as well.

All things considered, looking back over 10 years, Yudhoyono'€™s democratic record is decidedly mixed. He could have done more to improve democracy in the country. But he chose not to.

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