How?

so so

So so

Better than any of our previous presidents.

i luv him :P

Same like the previous one
I really amazed by China's former prime minister Zhu Rong Ji

This is what he has done in China

"Kami teringat ucapan arsitek ekonomi dan mantan Perdana Menteri China yang punya nama harum, yakni Zhu Rong Ji. Dalam banyak kesempatan, Zhu menyatakan, sediakan 1.000 peti mati. Sebanyak 999 untuk para koruptor dan sebuah untuk saya, jika terbukti korupsi.

Zhu tidak main-main, ia beri panggung kepada para penegak hukum. Para penjahat besar dan koruptor dihukum mati sehingga China kemudian dikenal sebagai salah satu negara yang menegakkan hukum secara amat keras.

Zhu rupanya melihat, untuk meraih kegemilangan ekonomi, salah satu pilar penting, yakni hukum, harus dibenahi lebih dulu. Kalau penegakan hukum berjalan baik, masalah sosial, politik, keamanan, dan terutama ekonomi akan berjalan dengan sangat baik. "Kepastian hukum selalu membuat nyaman dan aman para investor," ujar Zhu. Tidaklah mengherankan kalau China kemudian menjadi salah satu negara penerima investasi asing terbesar di dunia dalam kurun waktu sewindu ini. China pun meraih kinerja ekonomi yang amat fantastis."

I wish SBY have courage to make 999 coffin for Indonesian politician
And one special coffin for himself if he proved having a corruption

============================================================

Indonesian proverb
"Jatuhkanlah tiga buah batu dari angkasa, satu dari tiga batu tersebut akan mengenai kepala koruptor"

so so...he can't break the establishment .

Tentu saja SBY lebih baik daripada sebelumnya...Karena:

1. Aceh damai. Terlepas isi MoU yang pro kontra, kebanyakan orang yang komentar mempertentangkan isi MoU bukan orang yang hidup di Aceh, yaitu yang lahir, tumbuh, tinggal, dan kerja di Aceh, melainkan orang yang berasal dari luar Aceh jadi tidak tahu bagaimana dulu rasanya selama 30 tahun Aceh yang kaya akan SDA dimarginalkan oleh pusat, akhirnya ada perang selama 30 tahun, korbannya ya jelas rakyat Acehnya sendiri, bukan rakyat dari Jakarta atau dari Surabaya atau dari Makasar yang tidak merasakan dunia "perang" berdarah selama 30 tahun itu. Tentunya jangan berpikir Aceh tinggal selangkah merdeka, justru dengan MoU ini Aceh sudah tidak mempunyai niat untuk berpisah/merdeka. Ibaratnya Indonesia hanyalah memberi otoritas yang lebih banyak lagi kepada pemerintah daerah Aceh untuk mengatur daerahnya sendiri lebih adil dan bijaksana.

2. SBY jauh lebih terbuka daripada presiden sebelumnya, ingat kan dulu susahnya presiden Megawati bicara terbuka kepada wartawan, SBY malah membuka hotline SMS nya. Walau sistemnya dulu masih terkesan tidak siap, tapi saya acungi JEMPOL buat niat dan usahanya!

3. Korupsi walaupun ada penurunan yang sangat amat sedikit, penanganan kasus korupsi di era SBY jauh lebih baik dari presiden sebelumnya. Ingat, dulu sebelum era SBY hampir seluruh DPRD provinsi melakukan korupsi berjamaah secara terang2an, dan tidak ada tindak lanjutnya yang greget oleh aparat penegak hukum.

4. Berani mengubah paradigma masyarakat tentang subsidi BBM. Masyarakat Indonesia harus sadar dan bangun dari mimpinya. Masyarakat selalu menuntut BBM murah agar barang2 murah, faktanya barang2 murah belum tentu membuat orang jadi makmur, tapi PENDIDIKAN, KESEHATAN, dan INFRASTRUKTUR yang jauh lebih penting diinvestasikan oleh negara, semua sudah terambil jatah dananya hanya karena subsidi BBM. Sangat ironis. BBM yang merupakan SDA terbatas dan pasti habis bisa dihargai murah, demi terciptanya masyarakat yang makmur, buktinya dengan BBM murah apa Indonesia makmur? SBY mengambil telah kebijakan tegas yang memang pahit dan sakit untuk jangka pendek, tapi manis dan sehat untuk jangka panjang. Short pain for long gain! Catatan: Penghapusan subsidi BBM sudah disetujui oleh DPR jauh lampau sebelum era SBY, anehnya kenapa sekarang ada suara2 yang ingin mempertentangkan lagi? Politik!


Saya masih sangat optimis dengan kinerja pemerintahan ke depan. Karena sekarangpun umurnya masih peanut.. Kita lihat 6 bulan kedepan, kalau Indonesia tetap stabil dan bertahan dari dampak kenaikan harga BBM, saya yakin ekonomi akan kembali booming tahun depan...


p

Me right now so-so too. But I still give SBY a chance. There are priorities he need to do first.

I'm also still optimistic aboud his administration. It's still his first year, but I had hoped that he would make bigger waves, such as going after high profile corruptors. He did a great job in stabilising the country.

I'm also still optimistic aboud his administration. It's still his first year, but I had hoped that he would make bigger waves, such as going after high profile corruptors. He did a great job in stabilising the country.

that would be difficult, too many member of the establishment around him and supporting his cabinet, there's not much he can do to catch the big fish around him since Kalla and his gang are so powerful...

I won't vote since I'm not Indonesian. To me, his biggest problem right now is Kalla who is a "fat cat" representing the interests of the most wealthy groups in Indonesia.

i think he's great. especially like peseg5's point (no.4) i strongly agree with that

maybe need to reshuffle kalla hahaha

maybe need to reshuffle kalla hahaha

Does the president have a prerogative right to dismiss a VP in the middle of his/her term? never heard of it being discussed ever before, I don't think...

maybe there is a good reason why your president cann t make any decision right a way. there are some predators who like to see him make a huge mistake and who like to be president instead.

I won't vote since I'm not Indonesian. To me, his biggest problem right now is Kalla who is a "fat cat" representing the interests of the most wealthy groups in Indonesia.

Pretty Much agree with you, Indonesia right now has a president that talk less than his vice president. FYI, everyone in Indonesia is not purely blaming SBY for the fuel price hike but more into his vice president and the economic ministers.

cheers

Pretty Much agree with you, Indonesia right now has a president that talk less than his vice president. FYI, everyone in Indonesia is not purely blaming SBY for the fuel price hike but more into his vice president and the economic ministers.

cheers

SBY is smarter than ppl think , I think he's using Kalla as his 'shield' and make him his spokesperson for the govt's tough (non-populist) policies. As a result, the ppl are laying the blame more on JK and his mates, so that the effect on SBY's personal popularity is reduced. It also destroys Kalla's credibility as a possible challenger to SBY later in 2009, as he will be soon more as part of the problem rather than an alternative fresh figure.

SBY is smarter than ppl think , I think he's using Kalla as his 'shield' and make him his spokesperson for the govt's tough (non-populist) policies. As a result, the ppl are laying the blame more on JK and his mates, so that the effect on SBY's personal popularity is reduced. It also destroys Kalla's credibility as a possible challenger to SBY later in 2009, as he will be soon more as part of the problem rather than an alternative fresh figure.

good analysis Alvin...

yeah, politics is not something seen on the surface....

Still wait for the promise......

Enjoy:)

My problem with Kalla is not in his policies or what he says, but rather the type of people he represents.

SBY is smarter than ppl think , I think he's using Kalla as his 'shield' and make him his spokesperson for the govt's tough (non-populist) policies. As a result, the ppl are laying the blame more on JK and his mates, so that the effect on SBY's personal popularity is reduced. It also destroys Kalla's credibility as a possible challenger to SBY later in 2009, as he will be soon more as part of the problem rather than an alternative fresh figure.

Good analysis, but if its true, SBY might also lose his credibility and sense of leadership. No one will ever vote him again if he doesnt have the leadership style. In my opinion, a leadership style means you need to be more vocal than your assistant or vice president. For example, Why for instance, it is so difficult for him to just reshuffle his cabinet if many people demanded him to do so, even the equities investors too, a lot of anti-reshuffling comments were coming from Bakrie and Kalla and not him. Why he doesnt warn his economic ministers for saying a lot of unsensitive comments about fuel and LPG prices. Why only the Vice president who got the chance to meet with MUI and asked them to issue such fatwa about terrorism

Also, being a good leadership means you need to be ready for telling the citizen about a bad news or unpopulist policy, Indonesian people is getting very critical about politics and believe me, they will take notice of what their leader is doing.

A lot of question for his sense of leadership, but i hope he know what hes doing because i have faith on him to make Indonesia a better place.

Cheers

Indonesia's Mr Popularity survives a tough year
By Mark Forbes
Jakarta
October 22, 2005

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Man of the people: Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono addresses families affected by a volcanic eruption in West Sumatra last April.
Photo: AP

ON THURSDAY, one year after the inauguration of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a 200-metre mural was erected facing Jakarta's main roundabout. The mural was in front of the deserted Hotel Indonesia where a dissident was bundled out of a window in the film The Year of Living Dangerously.

This series of painted snapshots presented a far happier picture of Dr Yudhoyono's year of "serving the people", — a month-by-month display of him greeting leaders, giving speeches, observing parades and being feted by an adoring public.

Missing were the key events that have marked Indonesia's first directly elected President's baptism of fire: the tsunami that devastated Aceh, a second terrorist assault on Bali, fears of a bird flu pandemic, corruption scandals and controversy over the arsenic-laced orange juice murder of a renowned human rights activist on a Garuda airlines flight.

Despite his annus horribilus, Dr Yudhoyono has retained most of the popularity that swept him to power without the support of an established party. Grand promises of ending corruption and capturing leading terrorists in his first 100 days came to nought, but even blatantly breaking a promise by doubling fuel prices failed to ignite public outrage.

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AdvertisementThis week the President's spokesmen and key advisers, Dino Pati Djalal and Andi Mallarangeng, met foreign correspondents to spin their views of the year gone. It had been tremendously difficult, conceded Dr Djalal.

The pair reeled off a list of achievements, the beginnings of a fundamental change within the Indonesian state, a Government in touch with the people, committed to bureaucratic and economic reform and tackling the endemic corruption bedevilling the nation. On his election, Dr Yudhoyono warned Indonesia would "be destroyed if we do not stop the growth of corruption. There needs to be some shock therapy so that the people know that this Government is serious about corruption."

Unlike many colleagues, Dr Yudhoyono is perceived as clean, setting an example with a Government seen as free of "KKN" (the initials of corruption, cronyism and nepotism, according to Dr Djalal.

The head of Indonesia's independent anti-corruption commission, Taufiequrachman Ruki, appears unconvinced, pointing out that Indonesia still ranks near the bottom of worldwide corruption indexes.

"The legislation and law enforcement conditions are still in a shambles," Mr Ruki said. The head of the nation's highest court, Supreme Court Chief Justice Bagir Manan, is under investigation after the arrests of five court clerks and a lawyer who were allegedly trying to bribe him with $700,000.

The money allegedly came from former president Soeharto's half-brother, Probosutedjo, attempting to escape charges of embezzling $20 million of reforestation funds.

At the ground level, and even below it, corruption remains a fact of life for most Indonesians. One Jakarta resident this week complained he had to pay $70 for digging his father's grave and $40 to lease the plot despite a supposedly free, government-funded burial system.

Ordinary Indonesians appreciate the scale of the problems, and after an almost terminally indecisive predecessor, Megawati Soekarnoputri, Dr Yudhoyono has won points for action in a crisis. A day after the Boxing Day tsunami, which killed an estimated 150,000 in Aceh, he rushed to the region, opening up the closed province from military rule to allow in foreign troops, aid workers and the media.

As with many initiatives, the initial promise has bogged down amid a creaking bureaucracy. Ten months on, even normally diplomatic United Nations officials are frustrated that survivors are still living in squalid tent camps, with most of the $7 billion of relief funds raised across the world unspent.

Dr Yudhoyono did use the impetus of the tragedy to forge a peace deal with Aceh's secessionist rebels, apparently ending a three-decade-long conflict, with the adroit assistance of Vice-President Josef Kalla.

Increasingly, many other cabinet members appear to lack the skills to forge the fundamental change Dr Yudhoyono is demanding. Reshuffle calls are growing, with criticism of an economic team that totally miscalculated the devastating impact of escalating oil prices.

This month's bombings in Bali presented a deadly reminder of the terrorist threat Dr Yudhoyono is yet to fully confront. Ducking a public debate on the danger posed by Jemaah Islamiah and reluctant to take on Islamic fundamentalists, he is yet to gamble his still-considerable political capital on the issue.

Dr Djalal predicts more action, and more change, in the next 12 months.

Then again.. if you want to do unpopular decision.. you might as well do it in your first year. Not in your 4th or 5th year. That will make you loose the election.

Yudhoyono's Tough First Year: Good, But Not Quite Enough
Updated:2005-10-20 13:19:47 MYT


It has been a tumultuous year for Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who marks his first anniversary in office Thursday. The Straits Times Foreign Editor Warren Fernandez, and Indonesia correspondents Salim Osman and Devi Asmarani give their assessment.

A BOMB exploded outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta a few weeks before Indonesians went to the polls in September last year.

It catapulted security and the fight against terrorism to the top of the agenda in the long presidential campaign. It dealt a blow to the incumbent, Megawati Sukarnoputri, who was already trailing in the polls.

It also fired up the chances of former General Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Many saw him as just the man to deal with the situation.

He had surprised everyone by coming from almost nowhere to storm ahead in the race to be Indonesia's 6th president.

What a difference a year makes.

Today, President Yudhoyono finds himself confronted by another terrorist challenge, following a second Bali bombing on Oct 1 that killed 20 and injured 100.

The latest attack is symptomatic of the mixed record that the Yudhoyono administration has had in its first year in office.

It came to power pledging to do better than its lackadaisical predecessor. It promised to pursue the terrorists, and even proclaimed that Jemaah Islamiah (JI) masterminds Azahari Hussin and Noordin Mohammed Top would be behind bars within 100 days.

Some progress was made by the administration. It rounded up several JI suspects, including some of those behind the Australian embassy attack. These raids helped check the JI's ability to operate freely, disrupting its plans and undermining its network of terror mongers.

But 100 days came and went.

Now, a whole year has gone by, and both Azahari and Noordin--the prime suspected masterminds behind the suicide bombings in Bali--remain at large, presumably plotting and planning even more mass murders.

The JI's spiritual chief Abu Bakar Bashir was tried and jailed, but his sentence has been whittled down. Despite evidence that JI is linked to the bombings, the President has rejected calls to ban the group, perhaps out of fear of a Muslim backlash.

Yudhoyono has also been conspicuously silent about the activities of Muslim hardliners who have attacked the spiritual centres and houses belonging to followers of Jemaah Ahmadiyah, a religious sect not recognised as Muslim by the Muslim world.

The radicals have also been forcing the closure of churches in West Java. They have even threatened liberal Muslims for their unorthodox religious views.

"The failure of the government to act against the radicals has done a lot of damage to religious harmony in the country," said Syafi'i Anwar, executive director of the International Centre for Islam and Pluralism.

You win some, you lose some.

"If we measure his success by his electoral promises--economic recovery and the fight against graft--it has been a flop for the administration. But if we measure it by the challenges that are totally unforeseen, then he has succeeded," said The Jakarta Post's chief editor Endy Bayuni.

First years are usually tough ones for any new administration. But it has been especially so for Yudhoyono and his team. They have had to deal with one crisis after another, from natural disasters to currency crises and disease outbreaks, as well as terrorist attacks.

Seldom has a new administration had to face so many daunting and devastating challenges in so short a time. First, came the struggle to form a Cabinet, with more compromises being made to appease his many supporters than most analysts would have liked.

A battle for control of Golkar, the largest party in the national assembly, soon followed. In a bold masterstroke, Vice-President Jusuf Kalla seized the party's chairmanship, turning the parliamentary arithmetic on its head. This would remove road-blocks to the administration's legislative agenda.

Barely months into Yudhoyono's first term, Indonesia was struck by one of the worst natural disasters in its history. The Dec 26 tsunami killed 131,000 Indonesians alone and obliterated much of Aceh, in northern Sumatra.

Aceh has long been a hotbed of anti-government conflict. But Yudhoyono set aside the military state of emergency and opened its doors to foreign troops, aircraft and naval vessels from the United States, Australia and Singapore, and foreign doctors to assist in relief efforts.

It was a courageous step for the new president of a country that has a deeply ingrained suspicion of foreigners and foreign military forces operating in the country.

However, while his response to the disaster won accolades, his administration has been roundly criticised for the sluggish pace in carrying out reconstruction work over the last 10 months. Some have blamed this on infighting within his administration.

By contrast, observers have nothing but praise for the manner in which his administration--with much of the heavy lifting done by Vice-President Jusuf Kalla--managed to pull off an elusive peace deal with Acehnese separatist rebels. Months of negotiations in Helsinki ended 30 years of conflict.

But perhaps his biggest test was the fuel crisis in March. Oil prices shot sky high, putting pressure on the government's ability to continue with heavy fuel subsidies. Reluctantly, even hesitantly, Yudhoyono bit the bullet.

He cut the fuel subsidy and raised fuel prices by an average of 29%.

He pledged not to do so again for the rest of the year and promised aid to help the poor cope with the cost increases.

This month, however, he had to backtrack on those pledges. With oil prices hitting a new record each week, not to have done so would have been foolhardy, even irresponsible.

Pressure was mounting on the government budget and the national currency. Foreign investors and markets were watching how the Indonesian leadership would respond.

Yudhoyono, as he is known to do, stewed for weeks over this difficult decision, amid much lobbying on all fronts.

But when he finally did make a decision, the scale of the hikes he chose to implement stunned his supporters and critics alike. He imposed a 126% increase in fuel prices, just days before completing his first year in office.

Bitter though the pill was, the decisiveness with which it was administered was perhaps the Yudhoyono team's finest moment in its first year in government.

It earned him respect from economists and market watchers the world over. The International Monetary Fund hailing the move as being "wise and courageous". Also winning applause have been his efforts to fight corruption and woo investors, critical factors if the Indonesian economy is to take off and create the 15 million jobs needed to curb unemployment, which still stands at about 9 per cent.

During the President's first term, the once "untouchable" Aceh governor Abdullah Puteh was found guilty of corruption and former religious affairs minister Said Agil was taken to court for misappropriating almost USD69.38m.

Officials of the General Election Commission were also put on trial and three executives of Bank Mandiri were prosecuted over a bank loan scandal.

While these high profile cases have won praise, many observers lament that corruption remains rampant at various levels of the government machinery. Businessmen still have to navigate a complex and opaque bureaucracy.

As economist Umar Juoro noted, "Foreign investors are not coming in because there is no sign at the moment that the government has a clear plan on how to control the bureaucracy."

In the face of the many challenges faced by the country in the past months, the economic growth forecast for this year was pared down from 6% to "above 5%" on Monday.

Still, given the circumstances, most observers believe that the Yudhoyono administration has done a creditable job. Overall, it is a case of "not too hot, but not too cold" either.

The irony, however, is that the seeming stability in the country in the face of so many difficulties has led many critics to fault him for not having achieved even more.

After all, he won a landslide victory in the country's first direct presidential election in September last year. He won 29 out of 32 provinces, taking 61% of the vote.

His approval ratings over the past 10 months have been consistently higher than any of the three presidents since Suharto. A poll taken late last month by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) found public approval for the President's performance standing at 63%.

Amid unhappiness over the fuel price hikes in March and on Oct 1, it was telling that calls were made for his economic ministers--not him--to step down.

Given this backing, many charge that he has tread too cautious a line, trying always to foster consensus. Thoughtful and deliberative, he has been criticised for not being as decisive and determined as many would like, or as the country's needs demand.

What explains this? His experience as a minister under president Abdurrahman Wahid, who lost his job because of his knack for making enemies both within and outside his Cabinet, might shed some light on Yudhoyono's tentative approach to wielding power.

So too the fact that he is loath to be cast as an autocrat in the mould of another former general, Suharto, who ruled Indonesia with an iron grip for three decades.

Summing up the frustrations of those who wished he had delivered more, political analyst Riswandha Imawan said, "The administration should stop making new promises, the existing ones have not even been fulfilled."

After one long, demanding year in power, few would disagree that Yudhoyono has been arguably Indonesia's best president since Suharto.

But, for all his achievements, many are left feeling that he has yet to live up to the high--perhaps unrealistic?--hopes that he raised when he swept into power.


The Straits Times/ANN