The President was only the recipient of the award, while the decision obviously rests with the ACF itself. In this context, prominent Catholic priest Franz Magnis-Suseno was right when he wrote an open letter objecting to the ACF's decision to name Yudhoyono this year's recipient of the award.

A different show of how bitter reality can get is perhaps the House of Representatives' intensifying animosity toward the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), as more and more lawmakers become embroiled in corruption scandals. During a hearing with the House's Commission III overseeing legal affairs on the revision to the 2013 state budget on Wednesday, several House commission members said they were reluctant to discuss the budget allocated to the KPK for fear that they could be ensnared by the KPK.

The anticorruption body has long been the target of 'attacks and vengeful acts', particularly from the corrupt. Numerous figures from the three branches of government ' the executive, legislative and judiciary ' at both national and regional level ' have been convicted or implicated in corruption. And the fact that House legislators provided the legal umbrella for the KPK's anticorruption supremacy and apparently recruited its leadership is the reality that these legislators, particularly those implicated in corruption, must deal with.

Ahead of the 2014 presidential election, it is also a reality that alternative candidates have started to stamp their names onto the national political radar. Of those alternative figures, the popularity of Jakarta Governor Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo is a reality that even Megawati Soekarnoputri, chairwoman and chief patron of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the party associated with Jokowi, cannot continue to ignore.

In contrast to her party's previous position that Megawati would again contest the presidential election next year, she hinted through her daughter and party executive Puan Maharani that she would endorse younger politicians, including Jokowi, to take the stage next year.

'If a potential young candidate is available to be nominated [for the presidential poll], why not?' said Puan on
the sidelines of a House plenary meeting on Tuesday. 'Of course Bu Mega wants regeneration to take place in
the PDI-P,' she added.

This is the first time that Megawati appears to have suggested that the party is open to nominating a candidate other than herself. The suggestion came as various surveys found that Jokowi, a rising star in national politics, was far more popular than Megawati and that he would gain the most votes if the election was held today.

While promoting young and promising candidates remains a political signal at the national level, at the regional level, however, the PDI-P's practice of 'promoting' younger candidates for top leadership positions in the regions has so far seen mixed results. After a complete failure in the gubernatorial elections in West Java and North Sumatra provinces, young PDI-P candidates in Bali and Central Java gubernatorial elections have fared differently.

In Bali, although PDI-P candidate Anak Agung Ngurah Puspayoga did not win the gubernatorial election, he suffered a small margin of defeat from the eventual winner and incumbent Made Mangku Pastika, who ran under the PDI-P ticket in the 2007 election.

A satisfactory result for the PDI-P emerged in the Central Java election, when Ganjar Pranowo and Heru Sudjatmoko won the gubernatorial race last Sunday, with quick counts conducted by several survey organizations showing the Ganjar-Heru pair had garnered more than 48 percent of the vote. They beat the two other tickets of incumbent Governor Bibit Waluyo-Sudijono Sastroatmodjo and Hadi Prabowo-Don Murdono.

' Imanuddin Razak

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