Former general, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono remains on track for a landslide victory in Indonesia's first direct presidential election. After an election campaign characterised more by personalities than politics, the challenges facing Indonesia's first democratically-chosen leader are substantial.

Presenter/Interviewer: Sen Lam

Speakers: Greg Fealy, lecturer and research fellow in Indonesian politics, the Australian National University

Lam: Greg Fealy to what degree was this vote a judgement on the performance of incumbent Megawati Sukarnoputri?

Fealy: I think it was both a rejection of the style of leadership that Indonesians felt Megawati gave over the last three or so years, but also I think it was an endorsement of the alternative that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono presented. So on the one hand we had Megawati very hesitant, very reluctant to take decisions, giving very little public leadership on debates on very controversial issues, and on the other hand we had Bambang Yudhoyono who seemed to be far more resolute and had much more intellectual engagement with the key policy issues and also seemed to have a more systematic plan for how he would carry these out.

Lam: Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as you say is seen as the more decisive one but if early trends persist and he does becomes president ... would it be an endorsement of SBY's pledges to fight terror and reform government?

Fealy: I think reform government definitely. The public opinion polls have consistently shown that the most important issues in the minds of voters were economic ones, anti-corruption and general reform issues, rule of law, things like that, as well as general domestic security issues, and that includes things such as policies to contain or to fight separatists, violence particularly in Aceh. The terrorism issue there was very little evidence that that was a major part of people's thinking, and really there wasn't a great deal of difference between SBY's policies on this, Bambang Yudhoyono's policies and Megawati's policies. I think probably a lot of Indonesians felt that Megawati had performed quite well on the terrorism issue, whereas they felt that she hadn't really done very well on those other issues, the cleaning up government and industry and also improving the economy.

Lam: In terms of personality and political make-up, do you think SBY has what it takes to fix Indonesia's problems – to take the hard perhaps more unpalatable decisions?

Fealy: I have some reservations about that. I think he'll provide solid leadership but I don't know whether he will provide bold or creative leadership. He has record in the past of not taking on senior cabinet colleagues, not confronting major forces in politics over policy issues. There's only been a couple of notable exceptions to that, but for a lot of the time he's kept a reasonably low profile and has tendered to go the course of not quite least resistance but certainly not really sticking up for what he's told his staff he believes are the good policy options. Now whether he's different when he is the number one person, when he is the president I suppose we just have to wait and see. But so far on occasions he has lacked resolve and to push through some of the economic reforms that are going to be needed if Indonesia is to return to those sort of high growth levels of seven to eight per cent, he's going to have to take on some very powerful political and economic vested interests. And that will cause a lot of political pain, and I have doubts whether he has the stomach for that particular fight.

Lam: Indeed as you say it remains to be seen how SBY will attack Indonesia's myriad of problems, but to your mind what's the most pressing issue that he has to address should he become president?

Fealy: I think in the minds of the Indonesian electorate more than anything else they are looking for quick progress on the economy. They really want the economy growing at above that sort of five per cent level, and particularly employment growing because at the moment the growth of new employment opportunities and new jobs is not matching the number of people coming on to the workforce, and that has a big impact on people. Also increasing, considerable increase in income levels; I think people are also looking for those kinds of results from SBY. And if he doesn't deliver on that I think it's possible to see a scenario eventuating where he comes under quite sustained criticism from his political opponents.

Lam: So what does this election mean for Indonesia's political system ... this historic direct presidential election?

Fealy: I think it's important in that Indonesia has always in theory had a presidential system, certainly during the Suharto era the executive was where power was concentrated and parliament was a very weak institution. In the years immediately after Suharto's downfall there was some revisions to the constitution, which really delivered a lot more power into the hands of parliament, and in some ways it hamstrung the executive and the powers of the president. And although in terms of checks and balances there are some positives to that it also meant that the ability of the government to respond effectively to all sorts of issues was reduced or circumscribed.