An Indonesian celebrity is struggling to correct negative perception of Islam among certain quarters in the West by setting up a political party that advocates harmony with an agenda that would send out Islamic peace messages to the rest of the world.

Dangdut music king Rhoma Irama’s newly established Idaman Party aims to repaint Islam’s image as a peace-loving religion that brings blessings for the universe. That is why he names it Idaman, short for Islam Damai Aman, meaning peaceful and safe Islam.

The party will be officially declared on Indonesia’s Independence Day of August 17. The choice of this historic day itself has a meaning. At least it indicates his belief that just as the nation was freed on that day 70 years ago from the yoke of colonialism, his party would attempt to free Muslims from ideological and political disintegration and at the same time build Indonesia as a model for peaceful and safe Islam for the rest of the world to follow.

“Let us show it [to the world] that Islam is a religion of peace that is rahmatan lil alamin [a blessing for the universe]; [let us] prove that Islam is not terrorist, Islam is not radical,” he declared in Jakarta on July 11, adding that Muslims would hopefully unite around him to rebuild the country based on justice.

The most interesting aspect of Idaman Party, as Rhoma reveals, is that even non-Muslims can join it. This has yet to be proven, but he says he means it, so non-Muslims who are not affiliated with any Indonesian political party should register now for membership and see how the wind blows.

Idaman Party’s symbol is two hands forming the symbol of love with the phrase Love Indonesia on it. Philosophically, this party will advocate love, peace, and safety. Its agenda should revolve around these three themes and consequently its cadres should qualify for executing such noble values.

In Rhoma’s words, the main agenda, apart from contributing to national development, is to “erase the Islamophobia and stigmatization against Islam.”

Is that because Rhoma believes that existing Islamic parties haven’t done enough to serve the purpose? To some extent it is true. Muslim parties are fragile institutions. The United Development Party (PPP) is split into two camps and the National Awakening Party (PKB) has had the same experience.

The Crescent Star Party (PBB) is led by a well-rounded expert of law-cum-politician — Yusril Ihza Mahenda — yet it failed to attract enough voters to secure a seat in parliament. Other Islamic parties act only like non-governmental organizations (NGOs) outside of the official establishment, thanks to their failures in garnering people’s support, despite the fact that Indonesia is home to the world’s largest Muslim population.

Except in the first and second elections in 1955 and 1971 Indonesia’s political paties that are based on religious doctrines have failed to attract significant number of votes.

In 1955, at least eight of the 29 parties (out of 172 participating political contestants) that won parliamentary seats were staunchly Islamic, Christian and Catholic. The Majelis Syuro Muslimin Indonesia (Masyumi Party) was the second biggest winner after Nationalist Party while Nahdlatul Ulama was in the third place. Six of the top 10 parties were based on religion, mostly Islam.

Then president Sukarno therefore issued Decree No.128/1960 to limit the number of political parties to only 10, out of which only two were Islamic, namely Nahdlatul Ulama and PSII. The lagest Muslim party then, Masyumi, was disbanded along with Socialist Party.

In the 1971 elections, six of the 10 parties that took part were based on religion. Of these four were Islamic parties, one was Catholic and the other was a Christian party.

Since then and during Suharto’s nearly 32-year reign, government and military-backed Golkar Party was always the winner. This ensured ideological stability and endorsed the conviction that political parties based on any religion in pluralist Indonesia would not be favored.

Even up to the most recent election last year, political parties based on the Islamic religion failed to command a majority vote while Christian and Catholic parties have ceased to exist.

Riding on religion to pursue political ambitions is gradually but surely losing both its magnet and relevance in increasingly open and democratic Indonesian society where the rallying point revolves around economic, justice, and human right issues.

Against the backdrop of these historical facts, Rhoma Irama’s Idaman Party may just be a new comer around the corner though his ability to attract supporters is not to be doubted, especially among the lower strata of the social pyramid.

In the next election, Idaman will expect to welcome “deserters” from large older parties such as the PPP and PKB. So while Rhoma intends to mend the broken cohesion of Islamic parties, he at the same time will tear down their fences to allow for desertion into his camp. This would not be a desirable scenario for the older parties which need more — and not less — followers.

If indeed repainting Islam’s image is what Rhoma intends to do, that can be done more effectively through non-political avenues such as education, charity, promotion of inter-faith solidarity and peaceful coexistence, attention to minority groups, provision of healthcare services, campaign against human and drugs trafficking, eradication of poverty by creating employment opportunities through the private sector and many more such noble endeavors that comprise a true jihad for humanity’s sake.

But politically, Rhoma’s maneuver through Idaman Party is worth acknowledging as a manifestation of a citizen’s civil and democratic rights to contribute to the nation’s progress.

His next duty is to make sure that he can sell his political agenda through dangdut music concerts across the country — a talent that few Indonesian celebrities can match. Surely his party would win and he would be the next president if dangdut mastery and being a mass-magnet were the main criteria for winning elections.

That, however, does not mean he doesn’t have a chance. At a time when older Islamic parties are not projecting themselves as credible avenues for the Muslim masses’ aspirations, Rhoma’s Idaman Party may become an timely alternative. And older Muslim parties must now beef up their defense, lest desertion would be unavoidable.

What Rhoma needs to do now is to strengthen the party’s structure down to provincial and district levels, and write up an agenda that could attract supporters across the country. For mesmerizing the crowds the maestro needs no mentor, only some hips-swaying female dangdut singers to jazz up his shows.

Pitan Daslani is director of Managing the Nation Institute. He can be reached at pitandaslani@gmail.com.

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Jakarta. A new informal forum has attracted the world with its commitment to develop a trans-regional middle-power umbrella for cooperation in various fields after its parliamentary leaders conducted a meeting in South Korea recently.

The forum called Mikta (which stands for Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, Turkey and Australia) was formed in September 2013 by the countries’ foreign ministers and has since expanded its scope to include parliamentary leaders who met in Seoul from July 1 to 3. Mikta has a combined population of 540 million people and a combined gross domestic product of almost $6 trillion.

The Mikta parliamentary speakers discussed regional and global issues as well as 17 goals of the sustainable development agenda. The United Nations summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda will be held on Sept. 25 to 27 in New York and convened as a high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly.

The Seoul meeting was called Mikta Speakers Consultation 2015 and brought together Mexican senate president Miguel Barbosa Huerta, chairman of Indonesia’s House of Regional Representatives (DPD) Irman Gusman, president of South Korea’s National Assembly Chung Ui-hwa, and Australian senate president Stephen Parry.

Turkey did not send its parliamentary speaker because of a just-concluded election which gave the seat to former defense minister Izmet Yilmiz. It was represented by its ambassador to Seoul, Arslan Hakan Okçal.

Though this was the speakers’ inaugural meeting, they seemed to have developed very close personal relations with one another, even to the extent that they had already began talking about further exchanging ideas, experience and best legislative practices in order to set the tone and direction for their respective governments to follow.

Indonesia’s Irman, who delivered two speeches during the meeting, discussed the post-MDG agenda as well as the need for cooperation in various fields involving Mikta universities, provincial leaders and business actors.

Citing the need for compliance with UNSC Resolution 1874, which calls for a halt to North Korea’s nuclear buildup, Irman also discussed the need for reunification of the two Koreas.

“Restoring trust and confidence for lasting regional stability is not an option; it is an obligation and a long-overdue debt that must be paid to future generations in the two Koreas and beyond,” he said.

But Irman made it clear that as a founder of the Non-Aligned Movement that executes free and active foreign policy, Indonesia remained a good friend of both North Korea and South Korea and would therefore support any international effort toward lasting peaceful solution to the Korean Peninsula issue.

Chung welcomed Irman’s proposition by saying that reunification of the two Koreas would not only benefit the peninsula but the Northeast Asian region as well and even benefit mankind as a whole.

Mexico’s Huerta emphasized the need for Mikta parliaments to drive democratic process in each country. He urged parliaments to “spearhead efforts to guarantee that the SGDs become reality.”

Meanwhile, Australia’s Parry who also addressed North Korean nuclear threat took a step forward to solidify Mikta’s fledgling cohesion by initiating a lively exchange of views on how to keep parliaments as open centers for citizens to freely channel their aspirations and at the same time secure places free from any form of threat.

The meeting of parliamentary leaders ended with nine-point Seoul Statement that recognizes their similarities as democratic countries, open economies, diverse culture, and shared interests on regional and global fronts. It also called for efforts to improve inter-Mikta dialogues that can add value to partnership in the years ahead.

The statement recognized challenges facing international community such as natural disasters, terrorism and international organized crimes, climate change, maritime security, and growing movements of displaced people and asylum seekers; and emphasized the significance of Mikta countries in coordinated multi-dimensional responses at global, regional, and national levels.

“We will also make efforts to forge cooperative relations with relevant government ministries to assist Mikta in contributing to good global governance,” the statement says.

The statement also says that “resolving resolving the North Korean nuclear issue and achieving a peaceful reunification on the Korean Peninsula are critical to ensure peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia and beyond,” and therefore Mikta supports multi-track efforts of South Korean National Assembly for a solution through dialog and cooperation.

Mikta speakers will hold their second meeting in Australia in the first half of next year, and the third meeting in Indonesia in 2017. But if Australia cannot host the next meeting, the venue will be shifted to Indonesia.

On the sideline of the conference, Australian Senate leader Stephen Parry and Irman had a closed-door bilateral meeting that intensively focused on the need to activate a triangle development cooperation which also includes Timor Leste.

Irman told journalists in Seoul that the bilateral meeting of the two countries’ Senate leaders was a good beginning for building deeper trust and understanding between the two neighbors and this could become “a bridge for solution” in the event the two governments run into deadlock over bilateral issues in the future.

Parry’s legislative diplomacy drew admiration from Indonesian journalists who attended the Mikta conference. Unlike Australian government leaders who had difficulty positioning themselves over the Bali Nine death penalty issue, Parry acted like a well-seasoned diplomat who approached Irman as if they were long-time friends.

Secretary General of Indonesia’s House of Regional Representatives Sudarsono Hardjosoekarto described Parry’s meeting with Irman as “very friendly and productive with concrete applicable plans” and hoped this would open a new page of bilateral neighborly relations which in the past few years had been a bit stormy.

Senator Abraham Liyanto who represented East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province in the closed-door meeting said he would quickly follow up on the agreements reached during the meeting because time is ripe for Indonesia, Australia, and East Timor to develop a triangle development cooperation similar to the Singapore-Johor-riau (Sijori) arrangement.

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Sixteen years after the reform era began, the Indonesian Democracy Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, has realized the need to school its politicians ahead of local elections in a political education program to prepare eligible credible candidates for the elections. There are now 137 candidates enrolled in these classes under the supervision and education of mentors.

A hope for a better future

Before the PDI-P started the political school last Sunday, skeptics believed that there was little to no hope of upgrading the quality of politicians. On the flip side, however, the PDI-P is taking drastic steps to reform the system and it is time for other parties to follow suit. These measures are to equip would-be regional leaders with a broad vision of state governance and necessary state administrative knowledge so that they don’t spend too much time learning all the basics once in office.

Supporters have urged the PDI-P to take it a step further and reveal the curriculum and names of the mentors so that candidates can receive recognition for their credibility as graduates from the school; it would also assist the public in assessing their options for upcoming elections.

Critics have called the move one that is long overdue, citing that the Foreign Ministry has for decades made it compulsory for every would-be Indonesian ambassador to attend foreign service courses.

Is the measure enough?

This brings us to a very interesting question: Can Indonesia build a school that is founded on principles of integrity, that turns future bureaucratic leaders into exemplary government leaders? Another main issue with this is finding the right teachers to bring this into effect.

Another problem with Indonesian society is that even brilliant scholars with a high level of integrity and a good reputation often become spoiled once they are in government. The deep-seated roots of corruption linger so much so that the following analogy can be drawn: when the room is dirty, the broom used to clean it will also become dirty.

Suharto-era chief justice Ali Said once said that corruption was not caused by temptations from the devil because Satan did not need money. “If it were caused by temptations from the devil, we could easily get rid of them by calling in religious leaders to say some prayer and the devil would run away,” he said, explaining that there were other motivations drawing people to commit corruption.

The Lippo Group’s CEO cum educational patron James T. Riady shared his views that only a holistic education could develop a noble character, and this goes further than simply imparting knowledge. It is further believed that unless holistic education is adopted, schools and universities will only produce scholars who are cognitively intelligent, but not well-rounded, socially apt individuals.

At present in Indonesia, being an intelligent scholar is not a prerequisite to being employed and staying free from trouble. Just visit a handful of prisons in Indonesia and there will be a handful of PhD holders, those with master’s degrees, engineers and scholars of all types who have broken the law. Breaking the law in Indonesia in any form is not solely restricted to the uneducated; it can even be broken by the very people who understand it well enough to know where to find the loopholes.

To make matters worse, our leaders are not reliable, and it is no secret that they often take advantage of legal cases, swaying them to their benefit. The real tragedy was that at one point there was even a proposition to import lawyers, judges and prosecutors from abroad – an idea opposed vehemently by local authorities.

Reforming the system

The PDI-P candidates attending the school include would-be mayors and district heads who would have authority over regional budget planning and disbursement. Under the regional autonomy policy, more than Rp 650 trillion ($48.7 billion) is transferred to regions every year, not including the tactical funds for education, health care and social welfare programs.

If the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had been strengthened in the aftermath of the exit of its uncompromising former chairman, Abraham Samad, few would have been worried.

In Abraham’s era, the KPK was seen as an all-powerful institution that could send even high-ranking state officials to prison. In the post-Abraham era, the police force sits at the other end of the pendulum, and it has yet to prove its credibility in battling corruption.

The judiciary is another driving force that the government cannot enter, or interfere with. Ever since the reform era began in 1998 the most profitable profession in the country is being a lawyer, because many are in need of legal services. However, this is an indication that much has gone wrong in a country that is constantly at odds with the law. Judges and prosecutors are seen as demigods who have the ability to make or break a case, all depending on the size of the bribe.

Irman Gusman, the speaker of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD), has repeatedly criticized what he called double standards in legal supremacy. “[The] law is so sharp downward but so dull upward,” he says.

A petty thief can receive a sentence of two years in jail when the value of the item he steals may be only Rp 50,000 or less. But those who embezzle billions of rupiah in state funds can walk away scot-free thanks to the favors and bribes that they extend.

Making it work

The PDI-P political school needs to prioritize integrity-building of its students above all else. While learning bureaucratic procedures is important, integrity cannot be taught in a matter of a few days of political schooling. It must be emphasized at all levels of their education, otherwise political schooling could be seen as a cosmetic layer to fool the public. This must also be expanded to involve proper character-building so that politicians will no longer become subjected to public ridicule and can finally become model citizens for society.

Upon completion of the course, it is also proposed that the party conducts follow-up post-schooling to ensure that consistency is maintained.

In any event, we need to laud the PDI-P for taking the bold step to initiate leadership-based education. This initiative is in line with President Joko Widodo’s resolve to launch a mental revolution across the bureaucracy and through Indonesian society at large. We can only hope that things will continue to improve and that Indonesia will one day be free from corruption. The political school should be institutionalized as a model for good governance endeavors.

Pitan Daslani is director of Managing the Nation Institute and can be reached at pitandaslani@gmail.com.

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Pure gold is pure because it has passed the furnace. Acknowledgement of anything that is of high quality or value only follows hard tests. Even academic titles are earned only after you have passed tough examinations.

In short, tests are necessary to ascertain the quality of anything worthy of keeping. Likewise, the quality of fasting lies in the depth of devotion that often needs to include unavoidable tests and temptations.

In facing temptations as a test of life, the right attitude is not to run away from or attack them, but face them up front to ascertain the depth of your devotion and the height of your belief in the Almighty God.

Believers of any religion know too well that the test of life has a purpose that is not meant for their destruction and failure but is meant for their dignity and victory.

I was pondering on such theological recipes ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan when the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) issued a warning against sidewalk food vendors operating during fasting hours, arguing that such temptations should not exist during the holy month.

Islamic scholars need to teach FPI members that forcing food vendors to close only shows that they have actually cancelled their own fasting, because it brings suffering to the vendors — mainly from the lower walks of life — who would lose their daily income. FPI cannot claim to uphold its devotion by causing others to suffer, because that is not part of any religious doctrine.

What surprises me is that FPI members refuse to take such tests as an opportunity to ascertain the quality of their faith. They probably want to fast in an easy situation void of physical temptations. But even if they passed such an easy test, would it be right for them to victory on Idul Fitri Day?

Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin and Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama have called on Muslims to not force food vendors to close during Ramadan —apparently because not all the vendors are Muslims and selling food during fasting hours does not violate any state law.

In this pluralist society, tolerance is the standard operating procedure. And tolerance is not just about non-Muslims having to show respect to their fasting brothers and sisters, though they must; it should work both ways.

Here’s the reason: On the upstream level of Indonesia’s history as a pluralist nation, founding Muslim leaders had demonstrated an extraordinary level of tolerance.

Though Islam was the majority religion, they showed a high degree of respect to the non-Muslims by not allowing Islam to be made the official state religion. That itself is an Islamic victory, far more dignified than merely demanding that others should be confined to their corners the whole day and fast along with us because we are fasting.

Likewise, even though Javanese was the language spoken by majority of the population, founding Javanese leaders showed respect to no-Javanese by not allowing the Javanese language to be made the official state language. And though Kalimantan and Papua were the two largest islands rich in natural resources, their representatives who constituted Indonesia’s founding generation did not demand that the nation’s capital city be situated in either island.

But 70 years after independence, Indonesia is back to the situation before it became a republic. Radical groups interpret the religion according to their selfish understanding and the government is bowing powerlessly before them, crawling behind the pretext of democracy and human rights.

You cannot uphold your human rights by destroying those of others. You cannot uphold your self-defined faith by causing others to be driven at bay. That is not the kind of the nation-state that the founding fathers established in 1945 after 37 years of concerted independence struggles against colonial powers.

Indonesia’s biggest irony is that all the presidents that have been in power since the reform era began in May 1998 have not been able to instill in society that degree of nationalism that harmoniously held our founding fathers together.

The government doesn’t even have the courage to reposition radical groups to the extent that they not take over the duties of state organs. FPI is not a state organ, nor an Islamic police force, nor a true source of pride for majority of Muslims in the country.

But above all those arguments, one crucial issue the government has not been able to tackle is what to do with radical groups whose controversial actions often spoil the reputation of the Islamic religion.

They must be protected and raised as noble citizens because the constitution says so. But when they hide behind religious symbols and doctrines to terrorize public harmony, the government becomes powerless. But neither do religious authorities outside the government structure, nor Islamic scholars have the executive power to enact law against troublesome citizens.

A middle course is needed here. Police must act uncompromisingly against law breakers who disturb harmony in society, regardless of their high profile application of religious pretexts.

The existence of radical groups only shows police’s inability to uphold state laws. Taking over police’s duty in preserving public order, FPI is showing to the nation that it is a police force in its own right and must be allowed to remain so. And where is the national government which is supposedly fair to all segments of society?

Unless Indonesia would be reshaped into an Islamic state, which is highly unlikely given the deep roots of state ideology Pancasila, the government must be firm in dealing with all radical groups, because that is part of its duty of preserving the country’s pluralist harmony in line with the constitution.

The fasting month is a golden opportunity for all radical groups to repent and repaint their image as good citizens. Rather than raiding sidewalk food stalls and threatening poor vendors with harsh actions, radicals should use this holy month to promote harmony among people from different religious backgrounds.

Instead of being afraid of tests and temptations, they should face them with the same degree of gallantry that they exhibit when they storm into discotheques and massage parlors to threaten powerless nocturnal workers from earning a living.

Because Islam is a religion of peace, the Islamic Defenders Front must defend this reputation with good deeds and noble behavior to justify their name. Defend the religion according to its true definition.

To many critics, the very name of Islamic Defenders Front itself actually conveys a message of worry. Why should such an organization exist in the first place, in a country where Islam is the majority religion with 87 percent of the population adhering to the faith?

If at all a defenders front is needed, it is the minority groups — not the majority — that would probably think of one. And they don’t need one. There is no Christian, Catholic, Hindu, or Buddhist defenders front, anyway. So, what is the FPI for in the context of nation building and pluralist harmony?

The government must straighten this out and not allow radical elements in society to interpret laws and religious doctrines according to their own narrow understanding. Now, as Ramadan rolls on, is the best time to do it.

Pitan Daslani is director of Managing the Nation Institute in Jakarta.

He can be reached at pitandaslani@gmail.com

The post Commentary: Let There Be Temptations to Overcome During Ramadan appeared first on The Jakarta Globe.

Jakarta. Supporters of President Joko Widodo have denied allegations that the recently released song “Traitor” by Prananda Prabowo, a son of Megawati Soekarnoputri, Joko’s political patron, is directed at the president.

Sihol Manulang, the head of the Jokowi Volunteers Front (BaraJP), claims the song is directed at officials who have failed to fulfill their promises to the people at large, and that Prananda is not targeting the president, who rose to his position because of the nomination of Megawati’s the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

To agree with such claims, we need to carefully analyze the lyrics of Prananda’s song, made with his band Rodinda and which has been uploaded on Youtube, where it is attracting a curious public. The song is in Indonesian, but its translation is roughly as follows:

“Surrendered have I all my soul
To be the breath in your struggle
But you a traitor
You blow the war trumpet
The two aces
You think because of your power
You render me unmovable
Deception is your promise
Deceitful your intoxicating smile
Enough my wounds
My hatred preserved
Remaining time my altercation
You a traitor
A benign-face traitor
You a traitor
Behold your actions
It’s time for you to depart
It’s time for you to depart
Your end has come
A shameless human
Deception is your promise
Deceitful your intoxicating smile
Enough my wound
My hatred preserved
Remaining time my altercation
You the traitor
A benign-face traitor
Behold your actions
Your end has come
A shameless human
Wait for the time
It surely will come
When I make my day
To avenge the betrayal.”

Before Prananda released the song, the relationship between the president and Megawati’s family had presumably deteriorated over a number of reasons.

The latest incident was when Joko erroneously referred to Blitar instead of Surabaya as the birthplace of Megawati’s father, founding president Sukarno. Before this, Puan Maharani, Megawati’s daughter and the coordinating minister for human development and cultural affairs, labeled Joko “an assigned executive of the party,” effectively saying that he was answerable to a higher authority.

Prior to that, Megawati had issued a strongly worded statement warning anyone unwilling to abide by the party’s hierarchical stipulations to leave.

Prananda starts his song with a resentful expression as his backing chorus shouts out the word “traitor.”

As a new rising star in the PDI-P constellation, Prananda is not known to have launched any big political agenda, to which an obstruction could justify a sudden outburst of anger to be publicized in that manner. Is he actually echoing Megawati’s anger? But even so, against whom?

Megawati’s family has no reason to fire such political shots at anybody; their only opponent was presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, who has since the election embraced Joko and promised to support his presidency until 2019.

No single politician in Indonesia today is so dangerous to Megawati to be the reason for plotting revenge. So where can we find a rational reason to defend the notion that Prananda is not aiming at President Joko?

The lyrics clearly suggest that the so-called “traitor” should be brought down because the composer believes the time has come to end his rule. Who else would best fit the message conveyed by the song?

In uttering the phrase “It is time for you to depart,” Prananda used the Latin phrase “tempus abire tibi est.” The complete phrase of this Latin expression introduced by Quintus Horatius Flaccus is: “Lusisti satis, edisti satis, atque bibisti; tempus abire tibi est,” which translates as, “You have amused yourself, you have eaten and have drunk enough; it is time for you to depart.”

Depart from where? Only a person in power can be expected to leave his position. And “betrayal” is a word that, according to Free Dictionary by Farlex, has two meanings: first, to give aid or information to an enemy, commit treason against; and second, to inform upon or deliver into the hands of an enemy in violation of a trust or allegiance.

Dictionary.com defines the word “betrayal” more comprehensively as: “To deliver or expose to an enemy by treachery or disloyalty; to be unfaithful in guarding, maintaining, or fulfilling; to disappoint the hopes or expectations of; be disloyal to; to reveal or disclose in violation of confidence; to reveal unconsciously [something one would preferably conceal]”; and “to deceive, misguide, or corrupt.”

Meanwhile, the dictionary defines the word “traitor,” which is repeatedly used in Prananda’s song, as “a person who betrays another, a cause, or any trust; a person who commits treason by betraying his or her country.”

This lyric is extraordinary because the composer must have identified the the kind of person who fits his description before including such precise words as “traitor” and “betrayal” to justify his conviction. The phrase “deception is your promise” suggests that the so-called “traitor” has betrayed his oath of allegiance.

If indeed this song is directed at the president, Megawati, being a highly respected public figure, needs to come forth with a clear explanation so as not to arouse wilder speculation.

The public does not need another aimless political tug-of-war between her and the president at a time when stability is required to ensure successful execution of the government’s agenda.

Anybody in Joko’s position as it is right now would not be able to maneuver freely as president because he is surrounded by so many conflicts of interests. Some of these originate in the political parties that put him in the chair, others from business powers whose approaches are hard to resist.

Joko has even revealed that some oil mafioso had failed to force him to fire Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti even though they tried in to bribe him with up to Rp 5 trillion ($375 million).

Joko is heading a country that is infested with anacondas, rats and tigers. The newly appointed chief of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), Maj. Gen. (ret) Sutiyoso, was right: when Joko was running for Jakarta governor, Sutiyoso had warned that unlike Solo, Central Java, where Joko served as mayor and where people were more obedient, the capital would be a dangerous jungle full of beasts.

If becoming the top leader of Jakarta is like trying to rule over a jungle full of beasts, it is more so now that he rules the country, a much bigger and more dangerous jungle, from which he probably does not know how to maneuver safely.

But that is not what the nation — the public at large — is waiting for. Our economy is not performing well as the rupiah continues to plummet against the dollar, food prices are on the rise, the household burden soars along with unemployment, and regional competition has caught us unprepared.

Indonesia’s public figures and politicians need to be aware that the countly would face a larger crisis unless the government can perform well. What is tragically lacking, unfortunately, is a sense of urgency to solve, instead of attack, those myriad problems.

Pitan Daslani is director of Managing the Nation Institute in Jakarta. He can be reached at pitandaslani@gmail.com.

The post Commentary: Does Megawati’s Son Intend to Avenge Jokowi’s ‘Betrayal’? appeared first on The Jakarta Globe.