Note: Apa benar SBY mengatakan ia berpendapat militer
tetap perlu punya kursi di parlemen tanpa lewat
pemilihan umum? Matthew Moore pada intinya
mempertanyakan apa benar SBY seorang demokrat? Ia
menyamakan SBY dengan seorang sultan, yang tentu saja,
tidak demokratis.
========================================
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday, June 26, 2004
Yudhoyono changes his tune to catch populist wave
By Matthew Moore
Questions linger about the presidential front-runner's
democratic credentials
Jakarta - He insisted the military be guaranteed seats
in parliament, argued
Indonesia must limit the number of political parties
because of "experiences
in the past", and recommended a ban on public
demonstrations.
Now the former Soeharto general is tearing towards the
presidency, riding an
Indonesia-wide wave of support that has grown so big
he is more popular than
all four other candidates put together.
Exuding his infectious charm as he zig-zags across the
country, Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono seems to have forgotten those fears
he raised about the dangers of
democracy.
Now he has the aura you would expect from a Javanese
Sultan, projecting a
humbleness that has seen him revered as a saviour in a
nation that needs one more
than most. What the saviour stands for, and how he can
deliver, is much less
obvious.
Indonesia has had enough of President Megawati
Soekarnoputri, her supporters
now barely in double figures. In the fight to replace
her, SBY, as everyone
calls him, has pitched himself perfectly.
"The general who thinks, not the one who kills," as
one of his campaign team
described him, has out-manoeuvred his former boss, the
one-time armed forces
chief Wiranto, who is scrapping with Ms Megawati for
second place in
Indonesia's first direct presidential election.
Paul Rowland, director for the National Democratic
Institute in Indonesia,
has surveyed 220 people in 22 focus groups to find out
what is making them
support the different candidates. They like him for
his honesty, see him as someone
who would share with them news whether good or bad, a
leader who is "firm"
more than "strong", a man with an authoritative
bearing, who "looks
presidential".
To his surprise not a single member of any of his
groups said they would
never vote for Mr Yudhoyono, illustrating a level of
acceptance and respect no
other candidate got close to.
A political analyst from East Java, Daniel Sparinga,
said to understand Mr
Yudhoyono's appeal you need to realise he sounds
presidential too, and that this
tone is vital to his success.
He gets support for "the way he speaks, the softness
in his speech ... people
think he's giving us peacefulness".
These are the characteristics that have Mr Yudhoyono
polling between 45 and
49.8 per cent in the two best polls, numbers
tantalisingly close to the 50 per
cent he needs on Monday week to win outright and avoid
a run-off in September
against whoever comes second.
Such perceptions might explain why he is popular, but
they do not say much
about what the intellectual general really believes
in, which democratic
principles he truly supports.
Mr Yudhoyono is nominated for the presidency by the
Democrat Party he helped
set up less than three years ago. A six-strong team of
biographers has just
finished their massive work about him. Longer even
than Bill Clinton's tome, it
is titled The Democrat. And yet quite a few question
his commitment to
democracy.
Marcus Mietzner is one of them. He has researched Mr
Yudhoyono and other
generals as part of his doctoral thesis on the role of
Indonesia's armed forces in
the political transition. He has found little evidence
of his commitment to
the democratic system that seems about to propel him
into power.
Although Mr Yudhoyono was known as a reformist
general, that does not mean he
advocated the end of the Soeharto era or indeed has
become a real supporter
of the system that replaced it.
"Does he endorse the democratic system because it fell
on him? Would he
defend it in times of political crisis?" Mr Mietzner
asked. "It's very difficult to
know what he believes in," he said, but "SBY could
operate under a variety of
political systems".
"He went well under Soeharto and will probably operate
well under whatever
system comes next."
The country's best known human rights activist, Munir,
has said he will not
be joining the throngs rushing to vote for Mr
Yudhoyono, because he too doubts
his democratic credentials.
"He uses democracy only because it can give him space
to play in the
political arena. To him, democracy is only an
instrument; he puts no commitment into
it. So it is an instrument without commitment."
Mr Yudhoyono has not answered Herald questions on his
current view of
Indonesia's democracy, but his Democrat Party
chairman, Subur Budhisantoso, said he
expected some freedoms Indonesians now enjoy might be
wound back.
"We are still trying to find the right model. What's
happening now is
democracy without order, it's relative anarchy."
What the country needed was "a collectively controlled
democracy", but he
declined to say what form that might take.
But he was not about to walk away from Mr Yudhoyono's
comments in 1999 that
mass rallies should be banned.
"You must understand demonstrations in Indonesia can
become violent ... and
we should respect other interests. Demonstrators can't
simply stall the
traffic."
The lack of detail over what shape a Yudhoyono
"controlled democracy" might
take is common to almost all policy areas identified
by all candidates in this
election.
Each of the five has put out a "vision and mission"
document, but they are
sweeping statements devoid of policy detail.
On the first day of campaigning, Mr Yudhoyono
delivered a 27-page version
that took more than an hour to read.
It touched on all the massive problem areas the
country faces: endemic
corruption, chronically underfunded education, 100
million people in poverty, a
shortage of health care, struggling farming and
fishing industries, a degraded
environment, discrimination faced by women, labour
issues and the dysfunctional
bureaucracy.
But nowhere did he give any hint on how any of these
difficult, complex
problems would be tackled.
In a month of speeches, news conferences, televised
debates and 15-minute
interviews, the promises have continued to pour forth
while the question of how
is neatly sidestepped.
With his calm disposition and his silky talk, Mr
Yudhoyono has persuaded half
the country he is their best hope. But he has done
nothing to show there is
anything unfair in the nickname critics have branded
him with: the Minister for
Discourse.
In elections in 1999 Ms Megawati's Democratic Party of
Struggle blitzed the
field thanks to support from the "little people" who
saw her as their best hope
to find the path to better lives.
Mr Yudhoyono's support now is even stronger. However,
a failure to deliver on
his promises would end with him falling even further
than the crushed Ms
Megawati.
There is no question he is more capable, better
educated, harder working, and
with a nose tuned to the political wind. But for
Indonesia to do more than
muddle along he needs a real plan and serious
commitment.
Of all the candidates, Western countries prefer him.
He talks economic sense
to the aid agencies, and his role in fighting the
terrorists who carried out
the Bali and Marriott Hotel bombings is widely praised
and appreciated.
But in his time as the senior politics and security
minister, not a single
bill on political or security affairs that was passed
by parliament was
initiated by or drafted in his office.
In December 2002 he was widely credited for
negotiating a ceasefire with
separatist guerillas in war-torn Aceh province,
staring down the generals who
wanted a renewed military campaign. But within weeks,
as the ceasefire began to
crumble, so too did his resolve.
As one of those close to the negotiations recalled of
Mr Yudhoyono's change
of heart: "He's someone who puts his finger to the
wind and makes a calculation
based on that."
That skill seems sure to get him elected, but he will
need a lot more to
tackle the many problems Indonesians are struggling
with.
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - 100MB free storage!
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar.
Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/BRUplB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
***************************************************************************
Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. Menuju Indonesia yg Lebih
Baik, in Commonality & Shared Destiny. www.arsip.da.ru
***************************************************************************
__________________________________________________________________________
Mohon Perhatian:
1. Harap tdk. memposting/reply yg menyinggung SARA (kecuali sbg otokritik)
2. Pesan yg akan direply harap dihapus, kecuali yg akan dikomentari.
3. Lihat arsip sebelumnya, www.ppi-india.da.ru;
4. Posting: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
5. Satu email perhari: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
6. No-email/web only: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
7. kembali menerima email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
