| Yet another thing George Bush won't get credit for: nudging Indonesia away from the Islamicist crazies and towards the 21st century. It hasn't been even and there have been problems, but Indonesia is figuring out that collaborating with Islamicist crazies and using the army to thump minorities is a dead-end street. |
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a gathering of his Democrat Party on Sunday he would push ahead with reforms if he won a second term in this year's elections. The 59-year-old former general, seen as the most pro-business and pro-reform of Indonesia's presidential candidates, needs to win a strong mandate in order to have the power to overhaul the judiciary, civil service, and police, and deal with the impact of a global economic slowdown.
| Hope and change, baby ... |
Yudhoyono's Democrat Party, a centrist party which won just 7.5 percent of the votes in 2004, is well ahead of its more established rivals in the run-up to the April 9 parliamentary elections which will determine which parties can field presidential candidates. An opinion poll last month showed 23 percent of those surveyed would vote for the Democrat Party, potentially reducing the need to rely on several other parties in a coalition.
Yudhoyono also has a strong lead over former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, seen as his main rival in the July 8 presidential elections. |