been reading the jakarta post this afternoon. my eye caught news on a poll conducted upon islamic studies teachers on the issue of pluralism. the poll showed that most of those teachers reject the idea of indonesia has a non-muslim president. for the complete story read here.
rejecting a non-muslim president, huh? i might sound cynical but to me we need a president not a muslim president.
since our independence we’ve ruled by muslims and they failed to do a real ’something’ to this country if their muslim-ness is to use to asses their performance. the first was great. he proclaimed our independence. but, he was outsmarted by the second. even god was unable to bring this country out of the mess caused by our first president. worse, his fiery and electrifying speeches could not save millions of lives on behalf of the bloody ideological clash in the 60s.
the second was also great, they tell me, he brought prosperity that he was entitled to be addressed as bapak pembangunan (he who develops the nation). he was a hajji which signs his islamic piety i reckon. yet, he was responsible for the death of millions and other millions during his 32 years tenure. he was a thief and so were his entire clan. he robbed the people and made them poor to their wombs. what kind of muslim is that?
the third is a scientist. he was or is a pious muslim as well. but everybody knows being an excellent scientist does not mean being a good leader. people just could not trust him coz he was just the proxy of the second president.
the fourth was ‘real’ great. he was a pluralist. i admire his decision to abolish the draconian law which created the earthly hell for the family of the real/alleged communists of the 60s. he is a great pluralist kyai and of course he is a heavenly learned muslim. but he was a lousy president. his kyai-ness was unable to cure the ailing economy. people were still starving. ironically his progressive thoughts are deemed to be too progressive or high above the thick head of ordinary indonesians. so people kicked him out. yeah we were stupid and are stupid.
the fifth was a lady. well, she has the pedigree of being a leader. she is the daughter of the first. it was ironically funny if i recall gangs of ulamas (islamic scholars) across the country gazetted an edict that a female president is haram (forbidden in islam) but they said it was ok to have a president with a vagina when they learned that the vice president of that the not-so-good-muslim-un-hijabbed-female president was one of them. now you must understand that islam has been highly politicized in my country. she was just an ok president. yup the economy recovered a little bit. but still the presidential gene run in her vein could do no better to sort Indonesia’s myriads of problem. so she lost her post to another male president who was indonesia’s first democratically elected and the sixth president. he is no ordinary president i remind u. he holds a doctorate and was a general, a hajji and supposed to be a good muslim. people used to love him. but he let the mud caused by his minister’s private company drown his people. yeah that’s what happens when the government comprises of too many parties. you’ve got no strong leadership but a compromist at the cost of ordinary people. in my eye, his mortal mistake is his silence over that dreaded porn law. sorry sir, you’ve lost my respect and vote. what kind of muslim is that to condone such a law which is racist, chauvinist to boot, and sexist. good muslims won’t approve such a law i reckon.
folk we need not a muslim president. what we need is a leader who can help us with our problems; a president who can feed us at least three times a day; a president who enable us to send our kids to school; a president who eases us from worrying about the pricey health care system; a president who are learned that freedom of expression is not a sin; a president who is aware about global warming; a president who is not sexist, a president who……in short can lead us to the better not rule us to tatter.
if we have such a person, i will vote for him/her/it no matter if that individual is a drag queen, a homosexual, a lesbian, a ‘heathen’, a punk, a dangdut singer, a crippled, an albino, an atheist,…. you earn my vote though.
7 comments
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November 28, 2008 at 3:56 pm
dramaqueeningrum
I totally second you on your last paragraph. but I must say, I don’t think I’ll vote for a punk. why? because not only do punks look scary, they are also raging on the inside. we need a president who even though looks like a Blink182 personnel on the outside, he is a true Coldplay on the inside. so I vote for an emo president! ;p
Happy blogging, Delvi! People should read this post.
November 30, 2008 at 2:45 am
delvi
dear dramaqueeningrum,
who would you recommend?
it must be cool to have such a president i reckon.
November 30, 2008 at 7:26 am
Irene
what about midgets?
November 30, 2008 at 7:34 am
delvi
i don’t mind having a midget with a good great heart and clear vision to lead me (remember the key word is ‘lead’ not ‘rule’). it is better that way than having a normal but midget-minded person as our president.
November 30, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Irene
mwahaha…midget-minded…good one.
December 16, 2008 at 3:06 pm
vienz
well, FDR was a crippled, but he’s one of the greatest president of America. for he came up with great solutions to end the great depression. he came to office in such bad time…I guess we need a President of his caliber in this kind of bad time(s).
in my opinion, we don’t only need a good president to rule this country, but also a real humanist persons to serve in the legislative office, because if we think about it, the legislative is actually the heart of a democratic nation. because their duty is to make laws, or amend laws. we don’t want another trashy laws passed like the anti-pornography law. this country has more urgent problems to be solved by law. like the education. I remember that Mr. SBY once proposed for a raise on the national budget for education, and what did those money-sucker do? right, they didn’t pass the proposal because they think there are more significant problems that the nation was facing, other than education. oh, like what? filling up their pockets and their bank accounts (-instead of the teachers’)?
yeah, we need smart people who care about this nation to serve in the legislative, not only opportunist and corrupt minded people like we do now (of course, it’s a generalization. may be there’s a few idealist ones there, but we don’t know much of).
and about the educational budget raise proposal? well, I think that SBY is not all that bad. he just came to office in the wrong time. or, he just hasn’t had the time to show his true abilities.. I don’t know. that’s what I think.
December 18, 2008 at 5:43 am
delvi
yup vienz, the only thing we can do is to be super careful when we cast our vote next election. make sure we don’t vote for other holier than thou morons.