O

ne major characteristic of a good leader is the ability to grasp the aspirations of his or her people and realize them. And this quality, more or less, is possessed by President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo.

The President took two bold decisions in the past week in response to the general public'€™s aspirations or common interests in regard to the current state of affairs of the nation.

First was his decision to comply with the general public'€™s concern about the threat to the anticorruption campaign in the country. In a closed-door meeting at the State Palace, President Jokowi convinced House of Representatives leaders to delay indefinitely the deliberation of the revisions to the 2002 Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Law.

'€œI think we need more time to strengthen the plan and to disseminate more information about it to members of the public,'€ the President said in a press conference after the meeting on Monday.

The government had earlier agreed to work on revisions to the KPK Law with the House on the condition that the revisions strengthen the antigraft agency.

Both sides had also agreed that revisions would be limited to four points: the establishment of a supervisory body, the commission'€™s wiretapping authority, a mechanism for terminating an investigation and the power to hire independent investigators.

The plan went south when the House factions, led by the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), proposed scrapping the agency'€™s wiretapping authority while enabling investigation termination for corruption cases.

The House'€™s inconsistency in supporting the KPK has drawn strong public criticism, with the government facing questions about its anticorruption commitment if it continues supporting the lawmakers'€™ initiative. The government'€™s recent bowing to the proposal to allow the KPK to terminate investigations was regarded as a move to enable the future trading of cases involving high-ranking officials and politicians.

The second bold decision of the President was his readiness to support the Indonesian Military (TNI) by promising to allocate more funds to the TNI if the economy improves this year. Apparently responding to the TNI'€™s request for a continuation of government financing for its modernization programs, Jokowi said on Tuesday he would allocate as much as 1.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to the defense budget, or about Rp 250 trillion (US$18.66 billion), if economic growth exceeded 6 percent.

The President said the TNI budget was currently set at about 1.1 percent of the country'€™s GDP. In comparison, the average military budget between 2005 and 2014 was 0.82 percent of the country'€™s GDP, while the average between 2000 and 2004 was 0.78 percent.

Aiming to reduce imports by developing the domestic defense industry, Jokowi also ordered that any future plans must involve the use of Indonesia-made military products.

Jokowi expressed an aggressive plan for military spending in his election campaign in 2014, vowing in front of hundreds of retired military and police generals that it would be raised if economic growth stood at over 7 percent.

At that time, he unveiled his programs on defense and security issues, which included the modernization of military equipment and increasing the number of military and police personnel.

In his pledge, Jokowi also said that he would gradually increase the defense budget from $7.2 billion in 2014 to $20 billion in 2019 and that he intended to procure new jet fighters, radar equipment and military transportation aircraft, as well as improve border security.

The President seemed to be unnerved by the economic slowdown last year as well as by a number of accidents, particularly those involving relatively new military equipment within the past year. The latest accident was the fatal crash earlier this month of a Brazil-made Super Tucano aircraft in a densely populated area of Malang in East Java during a test flight, killing the pilot, an onboard technician and two people on the ground.

During Tuesday'€™s Cabinet meeting, TNI chief Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo presented an example of development programs that should be begun, including the development of Air Force bases outside Java and naval posts on border islands, as well as improved equipment and capacity in eastern Indonesia. The TNI is also seeking to improve cyber units and military intelligence units.

One thing was missing, however, from the President'€™s commitment to helping ensure continuing military modernization and development programs. As part of the procurement of replacements for ageing equipment and those items destroyed in accidents, there should also be a commitment to transparent procurement systems and transparent investigations into any accidents involving military equipment.

The TNI surely knows best what military equipment and weaponry are needed to protect and safeguard the country'€™s unity and territorial integrity.

However, as all these procurements are financed by the state budget, some 80 percent of which comes from contributions by the people through tax payments, the public deserves to know how their money is spent, including whether or not it goes into the coffers of crooked officials.

 '€” Imanuddin Razak