Selamat PilPres (Pemilihan Presiden) for all Indonesians the world over. The Indonesians are having their second direct presidential election today. But seriously I don't envy their choices. Granted that the voting ballot this time around is not as unwieldy and convoluted as the one in the recent legislative election but the choices are almost unpalatable.
Today Indonesians get to choose their President and Vice President from a list of three pairs of candidates: the incumbent Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) and his running mate Boediono (the former governor of Bank Indonesia); Megawati Sukarnoputri (former President and the daughter of Bung Karno, father of Indonesian independence) and her running mate Prabowo Subianto (former head of the military's Special Forces or Kopassus and the son in-law of former President Suharto); and Jusuf Kalla (SBY's former Vice President and one of the richest men in Indonesia) and his running mate Wiranto (former head of the Indonesian army).
Why are these choices unsavory? Megawati is simply inept, weak, clueless, and uninspiring. She had her chances at doing something when she was the President from 2001 until 2004 but she didn't accomplish squat. Her running mate, Prabowo, was part of the anti-democratic forces that tried to squash the Reformasi movement in 1998 by engaging in, among others, kidnapping and killing student activists by his Kopassus thugs. Jusuf Kalla is a megalomaniacal rich man who has nothing better to spend his money on and his running mate, Wiranto, should instead be tried for crimes against humanity for his responsibility in East Timor massacre in 1999. The lesser of six evils is the SBY-Boediono pair. SBY hasn't been that spectacular in his first term except for some success in fighting corruption in the government. Also SBY is a smart guy who is finishing up his doctoral dissertation from an Australian university. And his pick of Boediono is timely and spot-on because of the current global economic crisis since Boediono is an American-trained economist who has a good handle on the nitty-gritty details of the economy.
I bet all my chips for SBY-Boediono to win in the first round. By the way, if no pair gets 51 percent or more in the first round, the top two vote-getters will go to a run-off round, which I don't think will happen due to the popularity of the incumbent (as indicated by the big win of his party, Partai Demokrat, in the recent legislative election) and the much fewer number of choices in this election. One thing all the candidates are good at is coming up with the catchy nickname for their pairs: SBY BERBUDI (SBY-Boediono), MEGA-PRO (Megawati-Prabowo), and JK-WIN (Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto). At least they all get the importance of marketing in retail politics.
Anyway, about 176 million registered voters will ideally cast their votes today in more than 451,000 polling booths across the archipelago from Sabang to Merauke. All the best to you and I hope you do make the right choice. Just remember, people who forget history are doomed to repeat it!
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