! http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/opinion/for-indonesias-wounded-president-an-opportunity/467332 For Indonesia's Wounded President, an Opportunity Yohanes Sulaiman | September 24, 2011
Late on Thursday night, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono put an end to the speculation surrounding a possible cabinet reshuffle as his administration continues to see its popularity slip. A new cabinet will be named next month, the president said, leaving pundits now wondering which fresh faces will front the administration. For Yudhoyono, the move is long overdue, and it offers a chance to show the country that, despite appearances, he is indeed still in charge. A poll by the Indonesian Survey Circle this week attributed a woeful 37.7 percent satisfaction rate with Yudhoyono’s cabinet to a series of missteps and corruption scandals. The number will continue to fall amid reports of continued misconduct such as in the preparations for the Southeast Asian Games. Few would disagree that the time is right for a shake-up. Done right, the cabinet reshuffle will send a signal to the public, the political class and investors that the government is committed to making things right and deserves a fresh start. At the same time, a cabinet rearrangement is a double-edged sword, as it is an admission of fault. It is a confession that the government has been unable to govern effectively, and tacitly a plea that voters give it a second chance. If everything is business as usual after the reshuffle, both citizens and investors will be all the less charitable. To prevent this scenario, Yudhoyono needs to take pains to bring more professionals — regardless of their political affiliations — into key ministerial posts and he must grant them the freedom to do whatever is necessary to improve the performance of the cabinet. Part of this entails giving them adequate political backing to ensure their policies will not be second-guessed and thus vulnerable to political attacks. The need for a professional-dominated cabinet with strong political backing is urgent, considering the discouraging global economic news of the past few days. In the United States, with President Barack Obama’s popularity in free-fall, the business community is waiting for a new Republican president that will be more accommodating to their interests, and thus are postponing investments and keeping the US economy from recovering for the time being. In Europe, with a Greek default looking more and more likely, French banks are in dire straits, holding as they do a bulk of Greek bonds, and bringing into question whether this will lead to an economic contagion that will hit Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Such economic dominoes in the end threatens the existence of the euro itself. The crises also threaten the German and Chinese economies, which rely on exports. In turn, the possibility of a Chinese economic slowdown would negatively impact Indonesia. Such considerations are among the main reasons Indonesia has seen recent rapid fluctuations in the values of both the rupiah and the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Facing the prospect of a global economic slowdown battering the Indonesian economy, Yudhoyono does not have the luxury to rely on a cabinet based solely on political considerations. Of course, there are questions of whether such a cabinet could survive in Indonesia’s fragmented political system, where there are nine parties in the legislature, and with the Golkar Party’s power rising. Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party is bleeding votes thanks to the Nazaruddin scandal and insensitive remarks by the gaffe-prone House of Representatives speaker, Marzuki Alie. Yudhoyono, however, should realize that even at this lowest point of his presidency, with daily revelations of corruption eroding his credibility as a graft-fighting president, he is still one of the most popular politicians in Indonesia, far above lawmakers and political parties. His rivals have done a wonderful job destroying their own popularity, such as through pursuing anti-pornography laws while at the same time watching pornography in the legislative building. By imposing on local communities radical religious bylaws that provoke discontent, Yudhoyono’s rivals are handing him issues that he can use to show himself as a unifier above petty politics. Sadly, however, Yudhoyono has failed to seize these opportunities. He never uses his presidential bully pulpit to show that he is the only adult in the kindergarten of Indonesian politics. The president’s steady decline in popularity is less influenced by his policies than it is caused by the impression he is aloof, far removed from the nitty-gritty of governing and doing nothing to assure people that the government is in charge and is doing its best to curb misconduct, to stop sectarian political conflict and to cut the red tape that strangles economic growth. Indeed, Yudhoyono is his own worst enemy. Inactivity hounds him far more than his political rivals in the legislature. His inability to act decisively in following through on his election promises of eradicating corruption, of going full speed ahead in pursuing growth-oriented policies and of cracking down on thuggish organizations and irresponsible politicians that play with religious issues for political gains led to his steady decline in popularity. For himself and the country, the president needs to seize this moment. When the new cabinet debuts, it must be filled with professionals with strong accountability and strong backing from the president. It is time for Yudhoyono to show his political guts, and to reassert that he is in charge. The nation waits. Yohanes Sulaiman is a lecturer at Indonesia Defense University. He can be reached at [email protected]. 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