Respects

We were a bit startled when we read a news report by a major national daily quoting the president as saying that senior military leaders should respect their juniors.

The statement came several days after some retired high-ranking military officers, led by former commander of the Indonesian Armed Forces and vice president, Try Sutrisno, criticized President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for his apparent lack of focus in carrying out his tasks as the country’s top executive.

Such a criticism actually has been aired and quoted by the media on several occasions before. In fact, it was not only the senior military leaders who criticized the president because some academics, politicians, analysts had also done the same thing.

Therefore, it was not really clear why the president specifically asked the senior military leaders to respect their juniors—something which must be read as those with military background and today still hold public offices—but did not ask the same thing from others.

We were confused because, in our humble opinion, Yudhoyono could have just treated the criticisms by his senior as the normal political exercises in today’s democratic Indonesia. Therefore, he could have just listened and digested whether there was any truth in them. If not, he could simply ignore them. If there was, he should do something about it.

Everything became even more confusing because the president could also be seen as somebody who asked for respects while we believe that respects are something that he must win, not ask.

Respects can easily come for government officials—especially Yudhoyono who won the presidency by popular supports—if they work hard to fulfill their promises, if they stay on track to reach the commonly agreed objectives, and if they can continue to listen to people’s aspirations.

Yudhoyono, we believe, has the capacity to win all the respects he wants because he is an intellectual and is known to be a die-hard supporter of democratic principles and he surely can make bold decisions—if he wants to.

He still has at least 1.5 years to go to further boost the spirit to fulfill his promises and reach the set objectives.

Of course, 1.5 years is not a very long period but it will be enough for him to meet most of people’s expectations before he enters another battle field: the 2009 presidential race.