On a scale of one to 10, what would be a fair score for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla as they end their five-year term on Monday? We think the pair, and their Cabinet, deserve a mediocre six.

They were not excellent, great or even good, but they were not disastrous either. They missed opportunities as well as avoided situations where the country could have gone down the drain.

Pessimists may say they could have done better, while optimists may say they could have been worse. Under the circumstances, a six seems a fair if not generous score.

What is certain is the SBY-JK partnership did not deliver much of its 2004 election promises that had put them in the nation's two top offices.

They promised prosperity, particularly for the millions who live below the poverty line by creating more jobs and increasing their income. Things did improve for some, but only marginally when measured against the high unemployment and poverty rates and slow growths in the GDP and per-capita income.

For the most part, many people saw their income falling or improving only slightly, while forking out more money for essential services such as healthcare and their children's schooling.

SBY-JK promised a better business environment by amending the investment, taxation and labor laws, but only managed to reform the first two. Foreign investors adopted a "wait-and-see" attitude at best, but most went to China and other Asian countries where they felt more welcome.

The pair promised to build and develop economic infrastructures, but failed to address bottlenecks that limited faster growth. They organized two major infrastructure summits and proposed dozens of projects to potential investors, but only a handful materialized because of the classic land-acquisition problem.

They continued with major political, economic and military reforms but made little headway in reforming the legal system, and with the exception of the Finance Ministry, left the bureaucracy largely untouched by reforms.

They arrested, prosecuted and convicted many corrupt officials, but corruption is as rampant as always, suggesting the anti-graft campaign has had little impact on politicians and bureaucrats' practice.

On the human rights front, they failed to prosecute the murderer of human rights campaigner Munir, even though SBY had personally promised the widow of Munir he would, just after he became President.

Concerning counterterrorism, the National Police has only managed to kill terrorist mastermind Noordin M. Top last month. Noordin had been involved in most of the deadly terrorist attacks dating back to the 2002 Bali bombings.

For these less-than-mediocre achievements, some would give SBY-JK a score of five or even four. But we should recognize the unforeseen challenges they faced, including a devastating tsunami and three major earthquakes, a sharp rise in world oil prices and the global economic crisis. Other leaders might not have performed as well.

This could be the reason SBY received a new vote of confidence during the August presidential election, gaining more than 60 percent of votes, this time partnering with economic professor Boediono.

SBY could not have been elected for his mediocre performance. Instead voters decided to give him a second chance to keep his 2004 promises – in the absence of an alternative credible candidate.

Contrary to his election slogan Lanjutkan! (Continue!), voters do not want a repeat performance of his five years of mediocrity. His re-election meant Indonesians want SBY, with Boediono on his side, to deliver this time. No more excuses.