“I am not prone to looking back. Indeed, I am generally speaking suspicious of people who have a predisposition to look back; it is so often an exercise in self-justification—you always tend to see yourself as more important than in fact you were. And then there is the nostalgia syndrome; people tend to talk about the good old times but I don’t think they were the good times at all.”
—Sumitro Djojohadikusumo
Just when we thought Indonesia had hit rock bottoms, it throws itself into a new low after new low almost on a daily basis.
The current taking over of the country’s national data and digital system allegedly by an international hacker who then asks for a ransom of US$8 million is a new low point for Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s government, showcasing how weak and corrupt our defensive system and wrong Jokowi has been all along on the concept of infrastructure development by perceiving infrastructure as mainly consist of road and gorong-gorong (water tunnel) instead of seriously building software infrastructure, human mind and digital network and its security system for the nation.
The bottom line is that the state under Jokowi government has failed to do its first and primary duty: to protect its people. With 282 public institutions having been made paralysed by this data hacking, millions of people—from those who want to do business abroad to people who want to keep their privacy for themselves to families who have bought tickets for family travel—are now still feeling the consequences.
And what about the recent power blackout in many provinces in Sumatra at the same time for many days?
All of these difficulties hit people when many are still feeling the business loss because of weakening of rupiah, and because many materials, equipment and even food are imported, the rupiah value loss also push prices up, hitting millions of grassroots. Considering also that for many years, the government seems helpless to root out online gambling which has caused the poor become poorer—participants in this gambling are mostly low-income part of the society—and pushed people to commit suicide, then we can’t conclude other than this government has become a failed government.
These also show the rotten and corrupt mentality of the country’s bureaucrats who always seek for whoever can give them the biggest advance fees in the first opportunity without even thinking about the quality of the product and service they purchase using state money and its benefits for the public.
The tragedy is that this government has wasted huge amount of money in various infrastructure projects across the country, putting huge burden to the next generations by increasing the country’s debts to more than IDR 8,000 trillion (four times larger than when Jokowi entered the presidency in 2014), and making most of state-own developer firms nearly go bankrupt while uprooting and throwing away thousands of local people living in the surrounding projects from their own lands.
If only such huge of money—among others taken from foreign debts—could have been put into building a state-of-the-art digital defensive system without corruption and bribery, Indonesia, the Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, would not have experienced this kind of humiliating situation as we kneel down to the group of hackers.
This brings us to the next reign: President-elect Prabowo Subianto, who as the defense minister under Jokowi, should be partly—or mainly—responsible for the breach of the nation’s digital security. If Prabowo thinks food security is his responsibility as a defense minister, would he think digital defense is also his responsibility? Had he not spent too much on buying military equipment, but spent the money on software, will Indonesia’s digital defense have been stronger?
On more general questions: Is Prabowo part of the problems, or can become the problem solver for the nation’s difficulties? Can we give him the benefit of the doubts? Which version of Prabowo will show up?
Will the Real Prabowo Please Stand Up?
Given his alleged involvement in human rights violations in the past and his relations with Soeharto, many have been so fixed about the inevitability of Indonesia’s president-elect Prabowo Subianto becoming an authoritarian, suppressing freedom of expression and shutting down critics in the process.
Or thinking that at least he will turn himself into a strong man of Asia, like Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, or worse, Hun Sen of Cambodia.
However, there are those who are still maintaining a hope that he would show up as a wise leader, showcasing his father’s traits, rather than those of his former father in law, beyond a procedural democracy, which produces a below mediocre but dangerous president like Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, can ever offer.
For many others, it is still a guessing game what kind of president Prabowo will become. Will he clone what Jokowi has done? Just blindly continue the programs his predecessor has initiated? Or does he has a gut to break away from whatever Jokowi has done, isolating his vice president, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Jokowi’s son, and fixing the almost irreversible mess the predecessor has left in the process?
Or, will he confirm many people’s allegation that he would copy what Soeharto, his ex-father-in-law, has done, and become an authoritarian himself? Or will he want to prove everyone wrong by showing up as his true nature we haven’t seen all this time, and showing up as by a true nationalist who prioritizes his people over families or cronies?
After all, we haven’t had a chance to see him govern, and what he shows all this time is just an attempt to get to the country’s top job. There is still two possibilities here. He can be getting so much better while in power, or he can be so much worse. It’s a high-ceiling, high-risk game.
And if the above quote from Sumitro, Prabowo’s legendary father, can be an indication then there is always a possibility he would become not only good but great president. Sumitro, one of Indonesia’s biggest Intellectuals, economists and statesmen, wisely advises us, and his son Prabowo, to look to the future, and becoming a leader of his own, without having to resort to the tricky past, which seems glorious but actually much worse.
If he listens to what his father had championed, Indonesia will end up fine.
This editorial just humbly wants to remind Prabowo of his intellectual and statesmanship root, who had always been prioritizing logic and wisdom to steer the nation and its people to prosperity and freedom, while also humbly raise an idea for him to just forget Jokowi, and specifically, Soeharto.
Following them will not lead Indonesia to nowhere, if not backward.
As of now, we can only pray Prabowo can come to his senses, and make the right decision because whatever he decides will determine the fate of Indonesia and almost 300 millions of its people.
Our own survey prior to and during the 14 February presidential elections in 18 regencies and cities across Indonesia showed that his victory came down to the sympathy of people for his persistence and his image as a strong and decisive leader. Most people have accumulated a deep sympathy for him for his defeats in previous three elections (first as Megawati Soekarnoputri’s running mate in 2009, and twice as a presidential candidate in his lost candidacy against Jokowi in 2014 and 2019 respectively).
In short, Prabowo won because he has his own place in people’s heart as even long before the elections he has led every polls with a huge margin.
On a final note, we should a bit concern about his health because if something happens, Jokowi’s son is the next in line. For this we would like to say: Long live the new president.
