Can you ask a shuttler to be a good soccer player? Or can you ask a back to be a goal-hungry striker? By all means you can't do that. It's not about will, but it's about 'genetic' traits thing you hardly deny. Accordingly you can't complain SBY's inaction on anti-corruption war. That's what he has got. Should you ask him more, you flog the dead horse.
Not long time ago Rizal Ramli analyzed SBY's leadership. He said that SBY fitted for UN Secretary General in light of SBY's passion of holding meetings instead of problem-solving action. He tends to tackle problems indirectly or ask other parties to do his own jobs. This recent legal handling of tax mafia cases brings the confirmation of his character.
Gayus Tambunan, the corrupting tax officer, rampages our legal system. He is like a powerful superman whom no one is able to stop him. Amazingly he somehow had a trip to Macau, Malaysia and Bali when detained. It is impossible for Gayus to do this alone. Many officers hailed from many institutions get involved. And it needs a superman also to unravel all the wrongdoings. That is why many people ask the President, the highest level executive, to act, but hampered by his character he never does.
People actually know his character well since this is his second term taking office. In his previous tenure, it was then-vice president, Jusuf Kalla, energizing the government through risk-taking action such as giving order directly to police chief to arrest Robert Tantular for his misconduct over Bank Century or shifting the national household fuel from kerosene to LPG. Unfortunately, now-vice president, Boediono, has the same style with SBY. He is a thinker without bravery to take any risky actions.
There is nothing wrong with SBY since people have voted him. Certainly he hardly changes his character. Religious figures or intellectual persons may frustrate seeing his leadership, but we have to accept this until the next presidential election.
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To me, Indonesia's democracy is scary. In the wake of Pak Harto's era, we embrace democracy with great expectation that things will be better. And now we know it is not. The culprit is state system. It is said America's state system was established by genius so that an idiot can run the country. The well established system makes America's president's weakness not too much influencing to the government.
In contrast Indonesia's political, economic and legal system is not ready yet. Politics only brings us much ado about nothing. The only businesses thriving are natural resource-based and upstream ones such as coal or crude palm oil. The law enactment is tragic. It works to the poor but not to the rich. Given these sober facts, firm and smart leadership is much needed. The leader should make the system in order first before doing other things. And in Indonesia's democracy no one is in charge to restore this.
However lamenting Indonesia's democracy will be water under the bridge. What reasonable is to encourage the press to disclose all bad things in which they have done it well. The next thing we should do is waiting for the next election. People should choose carefully the next president by scrutinizing his/her track record and achievement.
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