Whither Indonesia?

Democracy has given a broad space to the press scrutinizing openly every single occurrence. We become overwhelmed with information. However the well informed public turn disillusioned since the blatant wrongdoings are never handled in just and logic way. We see evils have won many times.

Recently the court gave us startling verdict of Gayus' 7 years' imprisonment. How come? Gayus is corrupt tax officer. He has amassed unbelievable amount of money obtained from taxpayers. He freely had trips to Bali, Macao and Malaysia during his detention. And now he only has to serve in jail for 7 years. This false verdict clearly encourages young tax officers to corrupt tens of billions rupiah for eventually being punished just several years. It's worth to try.

On the heels of the lenient sentence, Gayus got his strength. He fights back by leveling charges at SBY's anti mafia taskforce for engineering the case to political affairs. He transforms from corrupt legal officer to whistle blower as if he never did anything wrong.

In another case, Nurdin Khalid, the chairman of Indonesian Football Association and once serving in jail during his tenure, is another unbeatable 'superman'. Actually he is not too-bad chairman, but he absolutely not good enough to bring the organization into modern one and deliver the achievement. He has taken the helm for two terms and now eyes for the third as if no other person can manage the organization. PSSI seems to be political organization instead of sports institution. People desperately ask for his resignation but it is of no avail.

To sideline him, some people try to hold Liga Premier Indonesia (LPI), a modern league wannabe competing PSSI-held Liga Super Indonesia (LSI). The best of LPI is that the clubs stop weaning from regional budgets. Sports are secondary need, so it's better to earmark the fund for much-needed sector such as poverty eradication.

Things get worse since some national players such as Irfan Bachdim joins LSI's Persema. Then Alfred Riedl, national U-23 team coach, left out him from his squad. It's no-brainers analyzing Irfan must be out because of his choice of LPI.

Accordingly, football management becomes in a great mess. The energy depletes not for achievements but for eliminating other parties.

The last example will be the development plan of new parliament tower. Lawmakers turn out to be troublemakers. Once they made overseas junkets in the name of comparative study. Once in Century Bank debacle they acted as prosecutors. Recently they pretend to be hard workers asking for more office spaces whereas they often sleep during meetings.

The fantastic budget to the tune of Rp. 1.3 trillion prompts public outcries. However no one can stop them due to lack of constitutional means. In reformation era, house of representative comes out to be super body that no institution can match.

These facts show Indonesia's crippling system: the winning bad guys, absent of meritocracy, politicizing sports. Should we neglect these – without reliable system of life – Indonesia would never be a developed country in the future. To fix this mess, inevitably we need a real leader who is never afraid to intervene and make a bold and decisive action.