No Matter Black or White

Deng Xiao Ping: "It doesn't matter a white cat or black cat, as long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat."

The 2009 presidential election had spent as much as Rp. 50 trillion. For the next 5 years (2010 -2014) another Rp. 15 trillion will be "wasted". For the sake of democracy, in terms of budgeting allocation priority, we sacrifice our people from lack of education, malnutrition, indecent housing.

The outstanding different between our fledgling democratic elections and Western's established democratic elections is the party's distinguished character.

In the paragon of democracy, in the western countries, we can see the different party with the different character and idea. For instance, in United States, Republic Party is the party with idea of no or less state intervention, while in contrast Democratic Party more receptive with the big role of government. Republicans deny the abortion, homosexual, while Democrats deem those as the rights to choose.

We have no such different characters of parties like that. Can we distinguish Golkar Party, Democratic Party and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P)? They are all the same of no character. They always waffle about how to develop Indonesia, but their program are normative and standard such eradicate poverty, create jobs, promote people's health status, etc.

So, if they are the same, why do we need elections? Eko Patrio from National Mandate Party (PAN), Tantowi Yahya from Golkar Party and Rachel Maryam from The Greater Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra) have no different ideas (if they have one!) and position in making law.

In my opinion we don't need too much election, because the parties are the same in the blur substance and elusive agenda. Please stop wasting money anymore! What we should encourage is meritocracy in the state system, let the best and brightest minds manage the bureaucracy.

Let us take Singapore as an example. With only single party really exists, the election is only to confirm the development achievement. The government run the state on meritocracy basis. The government recruits the best students to join the bureaucracy and give them the best education abroad and let them experience government affairs for at least 15 years and get the brightest ones to be leaders. This system leads Singapore to be one of the cleanest and well-run bureaucracy in the world.

So my fellow countrymen do still believe in or support those nonsense elections for our prosperity?

Indonesia’s Democrazy

The government will spend as much as Rp 15 trillion during 2010 – 2014 Regional Election all across Indonesia. Is it worth for us to spend such big amount of money for the dream of prosperity?

In Indonesia, democratic instrument such as election, freedom of speech, balance of power turns into political fad and chaos. Election becomes spending spree activities, freedom of speech leads to freedom of violence, balance of power means no one has responsibility of anything.

We didn't invent democracy so that we often lost the essence of democracy. It is freedom with responsible, rule of law, and above all, meritocracy have made democracy is the best choice of state system. However in case of your citizenry is not law-abiding one, just forget the democracy. Your leaders cannot make a system to ensure that the best and brightest mind will lead the way and manage the bureaucracy, and then democracy doesn't fit.

Democracy is only a tool brings people to prosperity. And sometimes you should take the West's democracy recipe with a grain of salt. If you try to be a copy cat of this then you have the different result with the rich Western countries. Instead of public order and high income, you get the rampant corruption, wild demonstration, election disputes and everything that eventually will hamper the development. So why should we embrace democracy?

Moreover, Indonesia is a developing country, so the development should be guided coherent policy from central and local government. On contrary, Indonesia's democracy prompts the overlapping policy and even confusing policy because they have their own agenda.

So what is election, especially regional election, for? First, it will be the disturbance of national policy. Second, in terms of Indonesia's need, local government is the pivotal institution which manages directly the people. So the leader should be the experienced one, fully understand the problem and have a remarkable track record. As mentioned above, meritocracy is the only way for us to have a good government and governance.

My brainchild is we only have one election for the five years' time. It is presidential election along with 33 gubernatorial elections. While the district and city's leaders will be appointed by governor. This system will simplify the elections and ensure the similar direction and synergy of national development.

Indonesia’s Bad Losers

Indonesia's fledgling democratic countries are rife with election disputes. The pattern is always the same: the vote-rigging occurred, the losers will blame the winner and mobilize the mass to hold demonstration. The losers never concede defeat.

However the losers can be exonerated when it comes to messy election administration and bad dispute solving system. However, the losers sometimes exaggerate the rigging issues. For instance, in 2009 presidential election, SBY team had been accused playing citizen administration all across Indonesia. Certainly, it was impossible, since all the governors and regents are derived from different parties, not only SBY's Democratic Party. So it is hardly to believe that they obeyed the SBY's command to cheat.

Our politicians should grow up to face defeat boldly. America's democracy teaches us how beaten presidential candidate make a speech to accept the result and congratulate the winner. Even when there is something wrong about the process, they put the public interest in the first place and not to sacrifice democracy by prolonged disputes. Richard Nixon neglected the then-US President, Eisenhower to file the case of election fraud against John F Kennedy. Al Gore did the same against George W Bush.

The Indonesia's losers should learn why in sports especially in soccer, the referee's decision is uncompromised. In 2010 World Cup, Lampard's goal is a true goal, but the referee had decided it was not a goal and everyone had to accept this, even at last we know that the decision was wrong. It's a game that cannot be interrupted by prolonged dispute because it will ruin the games mood.

And so does the protracted election disputes. The people will be divided according to candidates. The violence is rampant. The election turns to violent drama instead of legal process to choose the leader. Democracy loses its beauty.

Pak Harto and Oil Price

Until now Indonesians are still arguing never ending story whether Pak Harto is a hero or corruptive leader. During Pak Harto's terms we see a lot of development result such as infrastructure, industry, economic growth, more educated people, etc. Why can't all this things make him a hero? Some might say that the Indonesia's development benefitting his family's wealth development. Indonesia's economy is governed by his inner circle. However how is about the development presented by high economic growth? Can we appreciate this?

In terms of oil price, now we can explain why Indonesia developed so fast during Pak Harto's stint. Oil price did matters! Pak Harto can develop Indonesia because of good oil price. And later Pak Harto could only be toppled thanks to low oil price.

It was American bestseller author, Pulitzer-winning Thomas Friedman who suggests the relation of oil price and dictatorship or democracy in First Law of Petropolitics. The idea is during the oil price hike, the democracy will be hit and the authoritarian regimes blossom. When oil price is going low, the democracy rise. It occured in Indonesia and oil price definetely determined Pak Harto's faith. 

Let see http://www.wtrg.com/prices.htm.

During 1974 - 1985 oil price soared above USD 40 per barrel. It was because of oil embargo by Arabs following Yom Kippur war between the Arabs and Israel and Iran-Iraq war. And then it tumbled hovering USD 20 per barrel until the end of financial crisis 1999. And the the price increased again and peaked in 2007 and then went down again during financial crisis 2008 – 2009. But it remains above USD 40 per barrel.

From this data we can see why Indonesia develop so fast during the oil boom years 1974 – 1985. All national program had been succcesfully implemented. Indonesia was laudable for its rice self-sufficient. The population could be controlled by massive family planning program. Even we can designed a plane, CN 235 in 1983. Certainly Pak Harto is also a good administrator, so that the oil money was spent wisely.

And then the situation is turnabout. The oil price plunged and ever reached under USD 20 per barrel during financial crisis 1997-1998. And Pak Harto had to stepped down in 1998.

But Pak Harto had still some credits. Thanks to lower oil price , the government scambled to enhance non oil and gas industry and it worked. Indonesia manage to transform from agriculture-based country to industry-based one. In 1993 the agriculture sector contribute to GDP more than the industry sector, but in 1993 the industry sector had surpassed the agriculture sector. And according to UNIDO criteria, Indonesia included in industrial country since since the industry sector made up more than 20% of GDP.
However this achievement was not enough. The still-fledgling industrial country was not strong enough to tackle the financial crisis. At last the government yielded to high inflation and the government fell. And after Pak Harto fell, Indonesia's democracy rose.

The relation between oil price and the succes and failure of Pak Harto explains as follows. When the oil price high, the government had enough money to implement the development program, while the oil price as low as USD 20 per barrel, the luck went away.

Indonesia's oil has nearly run out. After becoming oil net importer country, Indonesia has withdrawn from OPEC since 2008. Instead of a bad things, it is absolutely good news. Now we have no choice to grow industry, innovation, education etc. for survival.

Led by Critics

Who is the real leader guiding the Indonesians' faith? It is demonstration, criticism, protest, etc.

Bibit-Chandra would go to jail, unless the massive criticism emerged against the Police Headquarters and AGO.Tempo journalists would be arrested unless the strong criticism appeared from civil society. And recently, the government's real planned tariff hike as much as 39% -101% get lowered to maximum 18% also because of criticism.

Even our previous presidents such as Bung Karno and Pak Harto can only be forced to step down through demonstration. And few days ago I watched on TV that the demonstrator forced the election commission to sign declaration of something as to what they want. We are the third biggest democratic country but we are not civilized in making public decision as if there's no rule of law. The only rule is the power of mass, demontrations and criticism.

Is there any leader in this country has inner power to decide something base on logics and remain persistence to what he/she believe?

It was former Jakarta Governor, Sutiyoso when he insisted to go on the plan of busway despite massive criticism. He could manage any resistance and continue constructing the busway infrastructure. At last some Jakartans realize that busway is a good solution for transportation problem in Jakarta. Now Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo can't maintain the momentum and let the private car and motorcycle fouls the busway system so that it becomes ineffective.

In a similar vein, former vice president Jusuf Kalla (JK) had also shown us the power of will. It was his brilliant brainchild to convert the household energy from kerosene to gas. At that time the problem is scarcity of gas because of the massive shift. JK can handle this quickly and the government could save money of subsidy. Now the government has no leader with the same character of JK. The good idea turns into disaster. The gas canister seems to be bombs sent to every Indonesian's household. It is absolutely only technical problems that can't be addressed well by the government.

Strong leadership as performed by Sutiyoso and JK is what we really need in Indonesia. We need leaders with strong characters to tackle any criticism and demonstration.

Mr. President, We Need Your Bold Action

President SBY made symbolic action against corruption by visiting assaulted ICW activist Tama. Previously, in the same vein President established Team 8 to investigate the alleged Bibit-Chandra of bribery case. And President also asked for outside court settlement for Bibit-Chandra's case only after the polling showed that people felt the government cannot handle this case.

If I have to give evaluation the way President did to the cabinet ministers, then I will give red mark to President in terms of law enforcement.

The style of SBY's leadership concerning with law enforcement is 'not to interfere'. Can he do that? Of course not. I know the President is very good person and he by no means support the evil. However the President's inaction means indirectly support them. The corruptor camp will hail no bold action against them.

The assault on ICW activist and Tempo magazine headquarters are not coincidence. Ridiculously, the President said it was a third party benefitting the situation and asked the police to arrest them. Certainly it is impossible that the incidents have not any relations with the case of suspicious accounts of several higher ranking police officers. And it is not logic to let the tainted institution to solve the problem embroiled them. And worse, Corruption Eradication Commission has declared that they will not take up the investigation. It seems they have been intimidated by previous traumatic experience against the police.

President SBY is likely a good singer and song writer. His heart tends to be soft. But this time we need his bold action to enforce law. We don't need his symbolic visit to Tama. We need the real action to command the impartial investigation against the suspicious officers' accounts. Otherwise many people will think he has no capability to punish his disgraced subordinate. And once again 'not interfere' means to support the misconduct parties.

World Soccer and Us

As happened in any other places in the world, we have also World Cup fever here. For a month Indonesia's newspaper, television, facebook, daily talks are dominated by world cup event. Impromptu soccer experts derived from politicians, lawmakers, artists are rampant in every television program. They gave analysis vehemently as if they are Franz Beckenbauer or Carlos Bilardo. And the cafes are full with people watching the game jointly. In short, our citizenry love soccer very much.

Unfortunately until now all we can do is watching the game and giving nonsense comments about the game. The performance of our national team is very bad so the fledging team such as Laos can beat us. Even if we love soccer, we cannot manage every aspect of soccer. Many players seem to be a gifted fighter instead of soccer player. Indonesia's soccer referee is not the most powerful man in the field commanding the game as we see in South Africa. The referee here can be beaten if you are not satisfied with his decision. The police cannot control hooligans fouled the public properties. Worse yet, there is no sign of soccer resurrection. (However resurrection is not the correct word of our national soccer, because until now we have no significant achievement even in Asia tournament). The national soccer association, PSSI, is still in doubt in terms of capacity to bring us any achievement.

Let us find the solution or the cause.

As far as potential players are concerned, there is no reason that we have no such good kids to be great player. We can get the talents all across archipelago. An ounce Singapore's population can select 11 players, let alone the 4th populous country in the world. If we have had the players and then we need a good system to forge the local talents. The question arises whether our national team players reflect the meritocracy of players. Are the kids of natural talent and physical fitness from remote areas in Maluku or Papua have a chance to show their skills and be intensively trained in school of soccer?

Our soccer competition has been held regularly. It is good for every player to hone their skill. We also invite the 2nd or 3 rd level of players from Brazil, Argentina or Africa to join the league. While the 1st level of theirs go to Europe. However, to Indonesia regular league with harsh competition don't have significant correlation with our national soccer team performance. Compared to Singapore, their teams have the same of skills or even better than us. So our busy league has failed to transform the players to be international player.

Now speaking about the coach. Let me tell you something that we have a big problem in the player's basic skill. Imagine that world class-coach Jose Mourinho manages our national team. What will happen? Absolutely, Mourinho might have failed in the beginning of his stint. Why? it's because our players has not passed the basic skill need including dribbling, passing, kicking the ball to the right place and right time. While the coaches in storied nations grapple with the strategy to put the right man in the right place and how to play using the width of field, etc. So you can't have a strategy unless you have many skilful players.

In a nutshell, in order to have dignity in soccer: first find the talented kids, second hone their skills as if they are the friend of the ball and they can do anything with the ball, and the last invite the best strategy coach to create team character and identity like Johan Cruyff create Barcelona as attacking team.