Finnegan: The Singer is not the Song What Indonesia needs is a real leader whose credential is based on his/her vision for the future, ability, intellect, political ideas, someone who understands the difference between the rule of laws and the rule of power, someone who has the change management skills to guide the country through the transformation that IT MUST GO THROUGH or else it will perish. Indonesia does not another leader whose credential, if you can call that, is based on either: * Religion, a la Gus Dur and Amien Rais * The barrel of the guns, ala Suharto, Wiranto, or other generals * Hereditary, ala Sri Sultan HB X * In the name of their father, ala Mega, Tutut * Some mythical prediction, ala Akbar Tandjung * By stealth, ala Habibie * Self delusion, ala AM Saefuddin * Opportunistic crawler, ala Harmoko * The Second coming Sukarno was in some way a genuine leader. He did get there because of his own political ability and ideals. However, his fatal weakness was his delusion of grandeur (Leader of the Non Aligned Nations, President for Life etc) and women. As much as I admire him, I do lay on his shoulder much of the blame for the current problems in Indonesia. The genesis was his Guided Democracy in 1957 (and Nasution's DwiFungsi in 1958), culminated in July 1959, when he introduced government by Presidential Decree, which was a heaven sent and used in perfection later by Suharto. Therefore for 40 years, Indonesia as a system, has prevented itself for producing leadership that is based on quality and talent. Instead, the leadership was based on what I have described above. This is another structural problem Indonesia has to overcome. Regards - Chai Finnegan, Boxing Day 1998.
