Soeharto died... so what?

Kuala Lumpur, January 27th, 2008

Soeharto died. So, I heard this afternoon from my husband. Well, maybe it’s about time. He’s pretty old already in my opinion. Since I don’t have a TV, I don’t know how is the reaction in the country. But I know that when he was first delivered to the hospital this month, there was a protest, asking the government to proceed on his case, while on the other hand, SBY was thinking about forgetting everything.

I’m not his follower. I don’t really put my symphaty for him either. I mean, I don’t vote for any of the presidents at all. I just try to be realistic. If it wasn’t for Soeharto, Indonesia wouldn’t be as much developed as now anyway, despite the corruption he and his clan did. So, I guess forgetting everything isn’t so bad in term of decision. Maybe SBY just want to be thankful for what Soeharto did for the country. After all, he’s just an old man [and now he’s a dead man!]. He deserves to redeem his life and the situation was already quite difficult for him after he was forced to step down.

Regardless of his corruptive way of life, I feel that everything was easier back then. Not much of riots and chaos. Everything was pretty much under [his] control. As a child, back then, I didn’t feel any fear. Now, all parents are afraid that something bad might happen on the street. All parents become quite protective to their children because the criminality that happens under their nose is unbearable.

I feel sorry for SBY. He’s a good and gentle military man with clean track records. But he just happened to be at the wrong time and wrong place. I mean, since he becomes the president, many tragedy happened. The tsunami, earthquakes, flood, fire, plane crashes, boat accidents, decreasing economy situation and not to mention the so-called mud flood. And everybody was putting the blame on him. That is just ridiculous! All those things are what we usually call force majeur. Something that is unavoidable. In fact, it was accumulated side effects of what people had done to earth. That filthy habit of throwing garbage just about anywhere, including to the river and gutter, for some decades are actually the root of the flood problem. The raise of sea and ocean surface is caused by the global warming because people are just not aware of it. Those things are nature-caused things and you can just put the blame on the president! He’s not responsible for all those things. Then, people were starting to blame him for the slow follow ups. But, come on, man… he’s just a man and he can’t do everything at once! This is also the not-so-good characteristic of Indonesian. Always asking for pity and help, and too lazy to stand up on their own feet.

Another thing is the economic situation in Indonesia. People are expecting instant result, which is impossible. There’s no way that the economic recovery will be shown in only 5 years unless we are all working hard with discipline like the Japanese. Sometimes I thought, if those people are so smart, so that they can protest and tell the president what to do, why don’t they become the president?

But I always remember what my father told me, “Only a very good leader gets as much trials.” So, I guess SBY must be a good one since he faced so much trouble from the very start. Who knows? I always thought that he’s the Satria Piningit. The chosen knight.