It is true and sad that democracy that we admire since the reformation era in 1998 bring us to the deepest sorrow nowadays. Blood spillage, damage of public facilities, and curse to the government are happened in this country many times in many places. And few days ago, we got awful news from the media that this country had to sacrifice another victim to the sake of democracy. The tragedy of the death of the Head of DPRD in North Sumatera shocked us and also generates us to think hundred times about the democracy itself. Is this democracy that we live in? Is this democracy that we desire? Is this the real democracy that we wish to preserve?

If I have to answer those questions, I would say NO! Democracy that I learnt in the college, or heard and saw in TV is not like this. But people who think that they fully understand about this ideology said that this is the sacrifice that we have to pay for. No, I don’t think so. More than ten years we live in this situation, and maybe more than ten thousands people were killed on this situation. Is this democracy that we wish for?

In the process to achieve the full-fledged democracy, our own style of democracy, we always remind ourselves about the importance of freedom of expressions. The stakeholders of this country said that ‘We are free to make an opinion!’, ‘We are free to being different!’, ‘We are free to protest!’ and ‘We are free to criticize’. But, do they really know about the real sense of the freedom itself? Do they fully understand how to protest and criticize in the ethics of democracy? I don’t think so. People in this country are too obsessed of being democrats. People in this country are too mesmerized of having a total freedom in their life. Eventually, those facts generate our people to become stubborn, superficial, and also dull.

Democracy is shouted everywhere, the labors, the political activists, the political parties, the university students, or even the school kids. They demonstrate their opinion, their claim, and also protest to the government. I do agree with them. I believe, by demonstrating our thoughts, feelings, and opinion to the public (particularly the government), will synchronize the process of development of democracy itself. In the process of democracy, we need the active participation of the civil society, and it happens in our country. But in reality, what we saw in the media shows us about the way they demonstrate their thoughts could be considered as a form of anarchism. People who admit that they are a university students are do the damage of public facilities, punch the police officers, or even burn some of public facilities and always make a traffic jam. So, is this the real democracy that we want? I don’t think so. The death of the Head of DPRD in North Sumatera few days ago proved us that we experienced a wrong direct of democracy. Democracy is an alibi for people who don’t have responsibility of their act. They act out of the blue and act uncontrolled. Is this democracy that we fight for? I don’t think so.

Those realities made us think hard about who’s going to take the responsibility to educate the people and to teach them about the ethics of democracy itself. In my opinion, besides the government, the education system also takes an important part to raise people awareness about the real sense of democracy. Our young generation has to understand about the ethics of democracy. Freedom as the vital element of democracy has to be characterized as a loosely and tightly coupled. Loosely could be defined in the sense of people exemption to express thoughts, opinion and action. And tightly could be defined as a pool of freedom that should be respected by people who exercised their freedom. So the freedom that we got has to abide the law and respect to other interests. If the people in this country are fully understand about this and implement this behavior, so there will no people movement that will harm our democracy. And there will no tragedy as we experienced in North Sumatera few days ago.

At the end, the active roles of the government and accompanied by the effectiveness of education system will increase the awareness of the real sense of freedom expressions and also educate them about the ethics of democracy itself. And if it’s not running effectively, I think we need the codes of conducts to construct the comprehensible rules of game of democracy. By having these codes of conducts, I think we would experience the peaceful democracy without sacrificing other victims. And the full-fledged democracy that we’re dreaming of would be achieved. And this is the real democracy that we need, want and wish for.

FRIENDSHIP

Friends,, seven magic letters which consist of many meanings. Believe it or not, that term really makes my life so colorful right now. But it was different when I was 13,, years ago, I never made many friends as I have right now, and I always failed in having friends or even dealing with them. Bad experiences just come and go, and it was such a nightmare! Since that day, I promised to myself that I won’t make anyone hurt or even mad of me! The very best thing is,, FORTUNATELY I have a best and greatest childhood friends in my neighborhood. Thanks Ta, Nyo, Mel, Ga,, for giving me so much strength whenever I deep down inside! And from that time, I always keeping in my mind that I have to be nice to everyone, I have to watch my mouth, and my behave. And it really works!

When I was on high school, I became a very cheerful person, friendly person! I don’t know why, but making friends are really makes me so happy! And how I hanging with them is so much fun as I ever thought before. I do have lots of bad experiences before I entered high school, being enemy of the states? Yes I’ve been there. Being envy by everyone? Yes I’ve been there too. My bad bad experiences in making friends really affect my life and my behave. I was so down at that time, when people staring at you with cynical look in everywhere, and what u did is always wrong in front of everyone! Argh,, It really makes me so hurt! And it was the worst memory I’ve ever had! How if u don’t do anything, and people accuse u like u do something bad? How if u feel so bad and wanna cry inside, and everyone just laughing of ur misery?

But high school just saved me away from that awful times. I’m so blessed that I entered that high school, thanks God for giving me one more chance to move on. And yeah, I enjoyed my lifetime there! I was making lots of friends, having so much fun, and also experiencing one of the best love story in my life. Hahaha,, even though until right now, I still don’t get it why could I love him that much! Having lots of friends and wonderful experiences making me more confidence in dealing with everyone. That makes me so convince on myself that I can be a best friend for anyone.

And my story isn’t over yet, my friends are increasing more and more. And it was started when I was entering university. Yeah, I thanked to God once again to made my life so worthy! I was blessed! I never regret that I became one of the students in this so damn university!!! Coz, I have lots of great experiences here! In having friends, having leadership moments, and also having lots of knowledge,, it really fulfills my life! I become a very strong young lady right now, with lots of ammunition on my brain! Hahaha so proud of it! And the most important thing is,, I have lots of GREAT FRIENDS here! I have EIGHT girls who always by my side whenever and wherever I need !!! I owe u so much guys! I have lots of BROTHERS in here (I shouldn’t put ur name on this, but I’m so sure that u know it!), thanks for saving me always BRO! I have the best class on my major,, class of 2005! I’m so proud of being ur leader for a year! I’m so proud to lead all genius people in the world like u guys! I never being so proud like this before,, I’m so happy to be a part of radio, being a part of PM of this university. And I’m so blessed to have this WONDERFUL circumstances!

Friends,, thanks for giving me this such wonderful and worthy experiences of my whole life time. Bad or good, I really enjoyed my time hanging with u, guys! This journey would never end! and it will become the greatest never ending story of my lifetime journey. Friendship would never end!

Lately, the terms “governance” and “good governance” are increasingly being used in development literatures. Bad governance is progressively regarded as one of the main causes of “all evil” within our societies. Major donors and international financial institutions often give their aid and loans based on the condition that reforms which ensure “good governance” are carried out.[1]

Good governance is one of the most common terms in the post Soeharto’s era.[2] But actually we do not know exactly the firm definition of it. According to the World Bank, Good Governance has to have three aspects;[3] first, the form of political regime; second, the process by which authority is exercised in the management of a country’s social and economic resources for development. Third, the capacity of the government to design, formulate and implement policies and discharge functions. Good governance can be defined as a mechanism of managing resources, either in substances or implementation that is purposing to achieve an efficient and effective development fairly.[4] Thus, good governance will be achieved when there’s a balanced system between state’s element and societal institution (societal organization, NGO’s, and mass media, etc) in the process of checks and balances, and there’s no one of them who has an absolute control of it.

There are several principles to guide processes in every arena as they have been adopted and practiced in many countries and perceived as very close to the universal values. Good governance has eight major characteristics.[5] They are: participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law. It assures that corruption is minimized, the views of minorities are taken into account and that the voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decision-making. It is also responsive to the present and future needs of society. Those are some of indicators to measure how good or bad governance in one country.

After the collapse of New Order regime in Indonesia, people who desire democracy and reformation within the government also declare the good governance term. Democracy is greatly related to good governance, as I mentioned above that one of the elements of good governance is participation, which is the basic concept of democracy. Many people say that our country is experiencing multidimensional crises and abuse of power nowadays. The catastrophes of our political system such as corruption, nepotism, and collusion happened massively and even have become part of our cultures. Because of that, our country is being stereotyped as a ‘poor governance’ country. This makes Indonesia becomes untrustworthy to other countries, especially donor countries that help us in development. World Bank as one of our donor institution put the principle of good governance as a requirement for a country which wants to be given a loan. So, like it or not, if we want to get the loan we have to implement good governance to our political system. We have to reduce or even demolish corruption, we have to cut off the bad and long bureaucracy, we have to be more democratic, and also be transparent.

As I mentioned above, Indonesia has a huge problem with corruption’s culture. Many of national institutions are buried deep down on it. But how we deal with it? Corruption has long been a structural, if not a cultural issue, something even schoolchildren accept as a way of life.[6] Corruption give many negative effect to the development program; there is a lack of monetary calculation because of the mark up of high cost products which uncompetitive in global market (high cost economy), and also devastating the societal order. But Indonesia is assumed to have achieved a lot of progress in terms of governance reform. We can put KPK (Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi) as a good example to reflect it. Even though there’s still a lot of corruptor in this country and the process has been such awful that the real output of the governance reform process is unobservable. But with this institution we can reduce it slowly but sure.

Conclusion

The collapse of former president Soeharto and the rise of the democracy movement gave people optimism that corruption would be dealt with seriously, especially through the empowerment of the legislature. But like an advanced cancer, corruption has already broadened to all the legal organs. It should be clear that good governance is an ideal which is difficult to achieve in its totality.[7] Very few countries and societies especially Indonesia, has come close to achieving good governance in its totality. However, to ensure sustainable human development and facing the challenges, actions must be taken to work towards this ideal with the aim of making it a reality.

The clamorous of American people in Chicago, Illinois could be considered as a portrait of American people to welcome the new 44th elected president for United States – Barrack Hussein Obama. In my previous note, I raised some questions about who’s going to be the winner of this super phenomenal election, and then the answer has revealed. Senator Obama wins the election. After the long journey of debate and campaign for about a year that he has been through, he succeed in convincing American people that they can believe in CHANGE and there’s NOTHING IMPOSSIBLE.

Yes, they can!

So what would happen next? That would be the next question to be answered. Does United States would be same as much as the previous administration? Or even in the opposite way? And then, what would happen in Indonesia? Are we going to be his attention in making his foreign policy? Are we as developing country would gain many benefits for his winning? Those questions would be answered after Obama has been officially occupied the White House in the next January.

The biggest celebrating of democracy was held in United States this year, and next year we would do the same thing. Next year would be the important moments for our history. The election of our parliament members and followed by the president’s election really put a huge attention for most of us. The ambiences of democracy party in Indonesia has been experienced nowadays, even though there still many people who’s not really into it or even skeptical to this election. The candidates of the next president of this country are yelling everywhere. The old or new look of our next future leader has showed them up in many public areas.

If we’re reflecting our democracy party which will be held next year to US election (the roots of democracy), we’re just in the beginning of the process of democracy. But I think that we’re in a good and right track to attain the full-fledged democracy that we admire. Instead of that, the next questions would raises are, Are we ready in yet to have a very new president who doesn’t come from Java? Are we ready in yet to have a new breakthrough leader? Or, Do we have any kind of leader that would make a breakthrough for our beloved country?

In my personal opinion, I don’t really care about how old of our next president is, or where do they came from. I just care about their abilities to make this country much better than now and their willingness in leading this country in the right track to the prosperity and security that we’re dreaming of.

The Obama’s winning could give us much enlightenment that we can believe in CHANGE. Yes we can! We can change our old mindset and interpretation that the president of this country does not have to be a Javanese, or former military officers, or a son / daughter of the previous president / official government. We have to change that perception if we want to go forward. Our next president has to know and understand about what Indonesia’s needs and interests nowadays. Our next president has to recognize and respect his/hers constituent, and put a huge commitment to it. And we as the constituent have to support this process by taking a part as voters. We have to vote, for the sake of our country! Vote with responsibility, and vote for our next future, next life, and our next generation!

In the next few hours, we would know who’s going to be the next president of United States. That would be the historical moment not only for the people of America, but also for the people in the rest of the world. As we all know that United States of America have led this world for almost seventeen years after Cold War. Thus, the outcome of the US election would really affect the economy and political constellation of the world.

The two candidates are very optimist to win this election. On one side, Democrat Candidate – Barack Obama leads all the polling and could attract many attentions from the people of America, particularly the young generations. But in other side, John Mc.Cain as the Candidate of Republic also attract the people who’s not ready in yet to have a young black man president in United States. Albeit, all the polling indicates the positive sum zero for Obama in winning this election, it doesn’t generate Mc.Cain to give in.

The phenomenon of US election is really fascinating not only for America but also for the international community. It could be seen by the euphoria of the world waiting on the result. It happens in Kenya, Japan, Europe and also Indonesia. Both candidates have their own strategy to collect lots supports to win this political game. Obama prefers Joe Biden as a Vice President’s candidate to fulfill his slight experience in formulating foreign policy and political matters. Unlike Obama, Mc.Cain prefers Sarah Pallin to be his Vice President in order to collect women sympathies or ex-Clinton’s sympathizer.

But the next big questions raises are, Do American people are ready in yet to have a Black President for the very first time of history? or Does Obama who constantly leads the polling would be the next president of America instead of Mc.Cain?, or Does Mc.Cain who always being under dogged by everyone would win this election? However, all those questions only can be answered by the final results. There will no certainty until the result is revealed.

As I mentioned before that whoever wins this election would really affect world’s constellation in major of politic, economy, and energy policy. These effects would lead the US foreign policy’s direction toward the issue of Iraq, Iran and other ‘axis of evil’ states. Although, the changing of the nature of US foreign policy toward those issues do not really significant differ from the previous administration. But the people of America deem that the new president would bring a new hope for America in the sense of wealthy ness, prosperity, security of their living. That would also the reasons why, most of countries in the world put a huge support for Obama to be the next president of America. It is because of the beliefs of most countries that Obama would lead the United States in more peacefully way rather than Mc.Cain who always stereotyped as a Bush successor.

We’re just hoping that who’s going to be the next president of America would make America and even this world much more peace and secure in all aspects. So, there would be no other wars or suffering in the world.

‘Change, can we believe in?’ or, ‘Country First?’

We’ll see.