Indonesia: The President's second term

By Allah I swear I will adhere to the constitution as faithfully as possible, and will commit myself to the country and the people.

On Tuesday, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took his presidential oath marking his second term as head of state of the world's most populous Muslim country.

Boediono was also sworned in as Vice President in the same event. He is Indonesia's first non-politician Vice President.

Twitterers and plurkers comment and welcome the new chapter of Yudhoyono's administration:

Riefky_kp: Today, October 20, was the president and vice president inauguration in Indonesia. Congrats to SBY and Boediono!

lydia_zein: TODAY is Indonesia's Presidential Inauguration! Shouldn't today be a national holiday?

brunei1234: HM arrived in Jakarta yesterday evening to attend the inauguration of the President and Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia.

czachrie: Today's inauguration..hope all goes smoothly..big step for Indonesia, let's hope we can redeem ourselves to the world!

misstashalov: Congratulations to Pak SBY and the whole team. Hopefully the new team can bring Indonesia to a better, advanced development. Ameeen!

meisyasiregar: Saw re run pelantikan SBY+Boediono I think it was alright,simple. But feel α shame for d miss spoken incident by Taufik K! He's so unfocus!

neethonk: And the inauguration has ended. Hopefully this new government will lead Indonesia into the better future.

G_liciousS: couldn't watch the inauguration of the president bcoz of this long BLACKOUT.. uuurgh, mmg katu Indonesia.. ckc…

jacksonkumaat: @presidensby @Boediono Congrats for the inauguration. pray Indonesia is run with the same level of excellence, visionary & good character

President Yudhoyono has been through a series of ultimate lows in his previous administration term, ranging from natural disasters like the 2004 Aceh tsunami and 2006 Central Java earthquake, to separatism threats coming from the country's easternmost provinces.

The former Army general also managed to reach agreement between the central government with GAM (Free Aceh Movement), a separatist group which has been aiming to establish Aceh as an independent Muslim state.

Corruption remains a big issue in Indonesia. Corruption is a known factor that chased away investors, both domestic and foreign. Because of its prevalence in the country, Indonesian development plans remain in status quo.

Back in 2004, President Yudhoyono  made corruption eradication one of his top priority on his first 100 days, since then prosecutions have been made including one of Yudhoyono's in laws but no real change among public servants  – bribery, cronyism, and nepotism are still considered as popular highways to success.

In this year's inaugural speech, the president said that the spirit of perseverance and the spirit of not giving up are important to uphold good governance and eradicate corruption, however he didn't highlight corruption eradication as his administration priority.

Despite so, according to one report the people see the president's effort in combating corruption as positive [id].

Indonesian bloggers have high hopes on Yudhoyono's new administration.

Even though the new cabinet is not yet formed, some Indonesian bloggers have already written their opinions.

Lila wrote an article on Politikana, a 2.0  platform popular among Indonesian political commentators, saying that the successor of the minister of communication might jeapordize freedom of expression and eventually, online freedom:

Dipilihnya Tifatul Sembiring dari PKS untuk memimpin Departemen komunikasi dan Informatika memberikan kesan bahwa duet SBY dan Boediono kurang menaruh perhatian yang serius pada departemen strategis.

[…]

ketakutan akan kecendrungan PKS sebagai garda depan pengusung UU Anti Pornografi untuk melakukan pensensoran internet besar besaran. Bagi pengelola situs  yang memuat Miyabi atau forum macam Kaskus (BB17) harus sudah siap siap dibredel atau tidak dapat diakses dari Indonesia.

By appointing Tifatul Sembiring from the PKS party to lead the Department of Communication and Information gives the impression that the Yudhoyono and Boediono duo isn't putting enough attention on strategic ministries.

[…]

What we should be afraid of is that PKS,  which is the front defenders of the Anti Pornographic Law, will conduct internet censorship in massive scale. Administrators of websites that include Miyabi as contents  or adult forums such as one belonging to Kaskus, should prepare themselves of being banned or at least inaccessible from Indonesian territory.

Lila also questions the ability of the future communication minister, who comes from a hardline party, to take stern action against website admins who incite hate towards other religions, sects, or even democracy.

While Lila felt that appointing the wrong minister could end up preserving  “the enveloppe below the table” practices, Wahyudi, who also wrote a post on Politikana, states the importance of embracing the 2.0 platform to obtain the  good governance goal.

Indonesia juga sedang di tengah – tengah pesta peluncuran sistem operasi terbaru dengan dipilih dan disahkannya pemerintahan SBY 2.0. Versi 2.0 yang saya tambahkan di SBY sayangnya belum terbukti dapat menyamai paradigma internet 2.0 yang menawarkan penggunanya untuk saling menciptakan berbagai hal baru yang dapat berguna.

[…]

Sejauh ini, saya belum melihat adanya keinginan pemerintah ataupun wakil rakyat untuk mengikutsertakan elemen terpenting dalam negara demokrasi: rakyat, untuk bersama sama menciptakan lingkungan bernegara yang produktif atas dasar partisipasi elemen-elemen sebuah negara: rakyat, wakil rakyat dan pemerintah. Platform yang saya lihat kembali yang sudah kita lihat dari versi-versi sebelumnya, yaitu platform yang lebih mengutamakan elite politik. Ciri khasnya tetap sama: tidak ada transpransi, tidak ada spesifikasi yang jelas untuk dijadikan bahan acuan dan mengukur qualitas, tidak mempromosikan keikutsertaan rakyat dengan tidak diberadakannya platform yang terbuka bagi rakyat untuk mengolah data dan informasi demi kepentingan umum.

Sepertinya halnya sistem operasi, kita akan disodorkan update atau patches untuk diinstal agar dapat menutupi kekurangan-kekurangan sistem operasi tersebut saat diluncurkan ke pasaran. Mudah-mudahan kita juga aka dapat update atau patches untuk beberapa tahun kedepan demi kebaikan bangsa dan negara.

Indonesia is currently in the middle of launching a new operation system, along SBY2.0 reelection and his swearing in. Unfortunately SBY's 2.0 version hasn't proved to compete the internet's 2.0 paradigm, which offers its users to reciprocately create and exchange new and uselful things.[…]

So far, I haven't seen any government's or parliament members’ initiative to include the most important element in a democratic country: its people, to establish a productive state environment together, upon the foundation of participation of various elements of a country: the people, the people's representatives and the government. The platform I'm seeing now is identical to the previous versions that we've all seen, which is a platform that prioritize political elites. Its nature remains the same: untransparent, no obvious reference to measure quality (of their work), does not promote people's participation by not providing an open platform for the people to assess data and information which could benefit the public.

Just as an operating system before it reaches the market, we will be given an update or patches to install in order to camouflage the defects of that operating system. Hopefully, us too, will receive new update or patches in years to come for the betterment of the country and the state.

Indonesia held its first presidential election as a democratic country in 1999, after being ruled by General Soeharto for more than 30 years, making it one of the youngest democratic countries in the world. The country's president is only allowed to have a maximum of two consecutive terms.

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