REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, By Nasihin Masha

The last three presidents of Indonesia have their own characteristics in terms of what they said. Gus Dur was called as the president fond to talk; chatty. Whatever his comments was had its special day; Friday. Megawati was known to be stingy to talk, like a mute person. While SBY (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono or Yudhoyono) assessed as a president who likes to vent his hearth sayings, complainings. Of course the public has legitimacy to judge their president. That's their right. It's a sort of criticism or protest.

This article did not intend to review the three presidents. This article will only look at the current president, the SBY on 20 th October, his ruling period completed the nine years of serving. On October next year, he will end his post as president for a second term. According to the rules, the President can no longer run for presidency in next year's election. He could run again in the next election or the election after that. Our Constitution allows only two times consecutively.

In the nine years of his leadership, the President has brought Indonesia into a spectacular position. On the beginning his term on October 2004, our budget is only around Rp300 trillion. Now, it's more than Rp1,600 trillion. Soon we can reach the value of the state budget of Rp2,000 trillion. Indonesian per capita income has also increased dramatically, from the range of 1,000 to around 4,000 USD. Economic growth rate is also stable in the range of 5-7 percent per year. A number of other macro indicators also show substantial progress could be achieved by SBY. That's what makes the position of Indonesia like a charming girl who demanded by a lot of parties.

All the achievement was not separated from SBY's leadership. His strategy in the field of economics and supported by strategies in the field of politics has made Indonesia moving forward. Of course there were lot of criticism toward his policies, for example, about poverty, unemployment, equity, economic sovereignty, and so on. A criticism which is no less scathing is on corruption eradication. But what makes SBY on dizziness is a political issue. This will happen to anyone who became president of Indonesia. This is because there is no party that can control an absolute majority in parliament. Although SBY won the 2009 presidential election with 60.8 per cent in a single round, but the Democrat Party only controlled 26.7 percent of the seats in parliament. This makes SBY's position weakened in Parliament. He therefore embraced many parties in the cabinet, even if it needs, all parties will be represented in the cabinet. Gerindra and PDIP Party has been embraced, but failed. Hanura Party was the only party that was unheard being invited to the cabinet.

The inability of Democrat Party to control the parliament made SBY turned to the public support. That's what the case. No wonder then if SBY is always keeping his charm. Though perhaps not consciously, he always maintains his popularity in the public minds. He watched himself in the correct rating pollsters. This raised oblique accusations at him as a president who has always liked the charisma and imaging. TB Silalahi, one of important SBY advisers, even suggested to maintain its appearance to fit his basic character, then, SBY hired a consultant from the UK. The movement of his hand and body language become his trademark during his speech. For those who follow SBY profile since his military posts, would not find his style like that - although his decency and intelligence is his a natural inherent.

But the political noise still makes anyone who became president of Indonesia facing tremendous pressure. This can be seen in the early SBY period as a president. That's why he always be careful on writing policy. But the bags under his eyes hung so thick shortly after he became president. His face was not as fresh as seen in the campaign in 2004. As Megawati said, to become a president is easy; the difficulty is to be a leader. She had felt it in a short period of her presidency. Like a Dutch proverb, leiden is lijden. To lead is to suffer. Someone should put the interests of the public rather than the interests of themselves and their families. Someone should not eat before all people have eaten; sacrificing all his interests before demanding people to sacrifice, assuming responsibility first before asking people responsibility. Not claiming a right before people get their rights.

But the president is still a human being. He wanted to share the story. He wanted to report what he had done. The goal can be all sorts, one of it that; all can learn and grow together. Therefore, when speaking in the presence of media leaders, he said that he was a victim of the press. When talking to the animal breeder he delivered that a number of criticisms were against him. When attending a dialogue at the meeting of Police leadership, he expressed himself being endlessly discredited. He planned to make a book about his experiences on leading Indonesia's nation, which by some parties actually called the book is only a hearth saying [or complaining]. But SBY said that he wanted to share the experience so that whoever becomes the leader must be ready with all the risks and prepare them about everything.

Indeed, in the end, to become a leader is to be a loner. He was alone at the top of the tree, at the top of the pyramid. There was no friends, no success team. A strong personality needed to get through it. Because of that, not infrequently, behind every great man there is a small figure that serves to be a spittoon and rubbish basket. It's simply to ensure the leader always looks manly and strong in public. Being president is to become a man with a lot of business, lost and fused with his people. That's where our integrity and self-esteem laid on.

Ed: M Irwan Ariefyanto

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