Forward artikel dari Jakarta Post. Orang baru merasakan peranan dia ketika kita kehilangan dia di pemerintahan:
Missing Jusuf Kalla, the quick fixer
Harry Bhaskara , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sat, 11/14/2009 12:50 PM | Headlines
Jakarta residents are having many a restless night. Air conditioners are dead and they are starting to mimic their compatriots in the outer islands: sleeping with open windows to let the cool air in or kick-starting generators in their neighborhoods.
The difference, perhaps, is their accessibility to fuel. Jakartans have the certainty of fuel availability to fire their gen-sets compared to their compatriots outside Java who have to contend with an occasional fuel shortage.
Now occasional darkness has widened throughout the country. Economic ministers will have an excuse when the economy fails to grow seven percent in the coming years. Most of the blame lies with the state electricity company (PLN), despite the government's crash program to build new generation plants of 10,000-megawatt (MW) capacity four years ago.
Frequent power blackouts in the capital, from five to 10 hours in two days, have deeply hurt businesses. Loses suffered by businesspeople have reportedly reached Rp 100 billion (US$10 million) a day.
The timing could not have been worse. The blackout occurred barely a month after Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono began his second term as president.
During his visit to the US in September, he laid bare the progress of Indonesia and invited businessmen to the country, only to find Jakarta, the center of commerce and politics, half lit on his return.
This can only reinforce the perception that power supply in Indonesia is unreliable.
To say the PLN has sabotaged the government's efforts to boost investment would be an overstatement, but the effect is devastating all the same.
To make matters worse, the prolonged legal battle between the antigraft agency and the National Police plus the Attorney General's Office has strengthened belief that the country is shrouded in legal uncertainty.
Legal uncertainty and lack of electricity are a poison to foreign investment.
After more than a month of power outages, Jakarta residents long for a quick fix. Former vice president Jusuf Kalla, who ended his term on Oct. 20, was often seen as a quick fixer, although at times his gut reaction betrayed adequate preparation. For this reason, he was seen as a perfect match to Yudhoyono who is often seen as a slow mover.
Together with Kalla, Yudhoyono, produced many productive energy policies.
Kalla made an energy policy breakthrough when he switched kerosene to LPG in 2007 thereby helping reduce the oil subsidy by 50 percent. He also pioneered the 10,000-MW coal-fired power plants.
Jakarta residents are baffled by the power outages. They cannot be blamed for thinking that if Kalla was still around a fix may have come faster. They can be forgiven for thinking the legal tussle surrounding the two suspended leaders of the Corruption Eradication Commission has been long-drawn-out.
If Kalla was around, he might have sought to fire both the attorney general and the National Police chief in the prolonged legal battle rather than confusing the public.
Apart from spreading confusion, anger and despair, the legal battle has sapped too much energy that could have been used to increase our productivity.
Even the head of the fact-finding team assigned to investigate the case befalling the graft agency, Adnan Buyung Nasution, said he was confused.
"Where is the country going?" he said after submitting his preliminary report to the President.
Kalla said in June that he was often impatient with the slow moving government. Professional groups were enthralled by his ability to make quick decisions; to walk the talk. His successor Boediono has also acknowledged that Kalla was an effective doer.
"Indonesia is too large to be handled by one person," Kalla was often quoted as saying.
He promptly called a Cabinet minister meeting when the tsunami hit Aceh on Boxing Day in 2004. Yudhoyono was not in town.
He followed up the catastrophe with well-regarded peace efforts that culminated in a treaty with the Aceh rebels signed in Helsinki the next year. He was also instrumental in finding a solution to sectarian conflicts in Ambon and Poso.
Kalla has proven his leadership and resoluteness in numerous other cases that have tempted many to imagine what would happen if he was still around.
Unfortunately, history does not operate with an "if". The people have spoken and a government is set to rule. We can only hope the seemingly snail-pace response of the new government to pressing issues is not a sign of the way we are to live under the Yudhoyono government for the next five years. |
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