It's been said already but can I just reiterate what a miserable, spoil sport, born-with-a-silver-spoon-in-her-mouth, toffee nosed, sour grapes, stick up the arse bad loser Megawati has been throughout this whole process. Jesus.
I haven't read your post yet, but I would like to ask if SBY was not such a good solid candidate (as many objective observers reasoned) why could a better candidate not be found and put forward??
Hi J, I really enjoyed this piece. It flowed. When I got to the end however I faltered when you wrote..
.....monitoring of programmes which are put in place by directly elected representatives, Indonesia's public servants.
Im interested in your choice of words "public servants" (I know you choose your words carefully)
My understanding of a public servant/public service is as follows:
public servant
A public servant is a person employed under executive government.
The public service refers to government departments and agencies, and the people who work for them. The public service is responsible for putting into effect government policy and decisions and legislation passed by the Parliament.
Im ready to believe that in Britain the term is used for the elected reps.
I only make the point because I would agree with your view, which I believe has come through in your posts very often, that the elected are there to do service/serve for the people..
but are they public servants??
I equate both those elected - directly now in Indonesia - and the bureaucrats who are paid out of the public purse, from budgets approved by the elected representatives - of and by the public.
Until '98, all bureaucrats had to vote for Golkar, Suharto's functional group, and were therefore beholden to him.
As was everybody.
It's taking quite a short-time in the scale of things, but we are beginning to see a change in their mindset which suggested that the public owed them a living, rather than the other way round.
thanks
Here's a link you may have forgotten to look at in a while.
http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/
maxlane...fails.html#more
TJP had an interesting article today regarding the election which I think is a very important trend in the Indonesian electorate (it's short so I will copy it here in full):
http://www.thejakartapost.com/ne...o-out-
door.html
Race, faith, ethnicity go out the door
Adianto P. Simamora , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 07/09/2009 10:57 PM |
Presidential Election
"Religion, race, ethnicity and gender are no longer determining factors in winning elections, as proved in the recent presidential polls, researchers claim.
An exit poll conducted on voting day by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) showed voter behavior was now based on rationality and pragmatism, from previously being based on the character issues of faith, gender and ethnicity.
The latter issues had been raised during the campaign, most prominently in claims that Boediono, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s running mate, had a Catholic wife, but were swept aside in the pair’s decisive, yet still unofficial, landslide victory.
The LSI’s exit poll showed 78 percent of respondents who voted for Yudhoyono had done so because of his superior record on the economy and national security over the last five years.
“These character issues are already dead,” LSI senior researcher Saiful Mujani said Thursday. “We’ve warned on this frequently, but our politicians remain stubborn.”
The exit poll was conducted across 2,116 polling stations, and has a 2.8 percent margin of error, but only 1,984 voters were willing to say why they had voted the way they did.
The exit poll showed 60.8 percent of respondents voted for Yudhoyono, followed by Megawati Soekarnoputri with 26.6 percent and Jusuf Kalla with 12.6 percent."
I'm with Simon, Mega's churlish denunciation of the clear and unequivocal democratic wishes of the Indonesian people as a "pseudo-democracy" was nothing short of contemptible and shows she is unfit for high office.
I think J is wrong about Golkar. They remind me of Fianna Fail in Ireland, the party all the 'right-thinkers' despise and which every twenty years or so is supposed to have been finally killed off and in the words of Conor Cruise O'Brien "buried at the crossroads at midnight with a stake through its heart" but which, with unerring regularity, invariably rises again.
The way forward for Golkar is obvious; Wee Joe steps down, Bakrie takes over, they form an alliance in parliament with SBY and in five years time it's Bapak Presiden Aburuzal Bakrie. You'd enjoy that wouldn't you J?
I think Golkar is done. Bakrie will never be the president. SBY has another five years ahead to make it so. And surprising at it might seem I think this election has returned a bit of memory back to the Indonesians (not to mention the apparent approval of some semblance of stability).
I do agree with Simon. Mega just needs to go home and tend to her tea and cookies.
My only real gripe is Wiranto and Probowo still running around free men. It would be nice to see some accountability on that score.
These chaps are all getting old now too of course and that's another criticism of the political elite's selfishness. They have resisted relinquishing their power to groom the next generation. Mind you they'd no doubt turn out scumbags too under that tutelage. Wear are the young blades though? In the UK there are any number of ambitious young unctuous politico toss rags who've crow barred themselves into designer suits whilst practising their concerned expressions.
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