Editorial: Badawi’s departure

(Jakarta Post) – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono received outgoing Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at the Merdeka Palace on Tuesday. The Antara news agency described the meeting as part of their annual consultations. To be precise, however, this was a farewell visit for Badawi, who is scheduled to soon handover power to his deputy, Najib Razak. It was hard then, to expect substantial progress to be reached at the meeting.

Badawi replaced Mahathir Mohamad, who ruled Malaysia for 22 years, in 2003. From Indonesia’s perspective, the transfer of power in Malaysia lacks the fundamental elements of democracy; although we cannot say our system is absolutely better than Malaysia.

We do hope that Malaysian leaders will learn from the bitter experience of Mahathir after he hands over power to Badawi, his trustee. Mahathir thinks he has the right to dictate to Badawi because it was him who chose Badawi. This is the price that Malaysia has to pay for choosing such a system of leadership replacement. It is not possible that Najib will undergo the same experience.

Indonesian voters will decide who will lead this nation in July’s presidential election. Indonesians may feel more fortunate than their Malaysian neighbors, at least when it comes to choosing a head of state, as they have the right to directly elect their leaders.

People in Indonesia and Malaysia often find easy, but also often cheap, reasons or pretexts to express  hatred or  a sense of superiority — no matter how absurd it is — against their neighbor. Unfortunately their leaders are also often trapped by such a childish mentality.

Hopefully Najib can perform better than Badawi. The two countries, both their people and the government, need to realize that their immature and even childish behavior and actions is often paid for dearly.