Pitan Daslani – A powerful wave of aspiration for a total overhaul of the presidential election system has begun to take shape over the past month following appeals by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and People's Consultative Assembly Chairman Taufik Kiemas for better candidates to contest the 2014 election.

This was initiated by Taufik, who has since last year proposed that "new faces" be allowed to run for the nation's top office, because older generation candidates – including his own wife Megawati Sukarnoputri and leaders of other major political parties – are "too old to fit" the changing landscape of the country.

This appeal was endorsed by Yudhoyono during a fast-breaking gathering with mass media leaders earlier this month, that the media should provide "wider room for potential candidates to get their ideas known to the public."

Yudhoyono's remark represented a subtle reference to alternative presidential candidates, because he suggested that in the next election voters "should be educated" to "vote rationally" based on their comprehension of the candidates' ideas and capabilities. What he means, in essence, is that voters should not pick presidential candidates merely because of their popularity or because of transactional engineering by political parties.

Radar Panca Dahana, an expert on Javanese culture, told the Jakarta Globe that the president has conveyed this message in the strongest manner possible. This clearly indicates that as a head of state who cannot be elected for another term, Yudhoyono actually wants to make sure that the next president "should not be any of the senior leaders already known to the public," Radar said.

This is because they will either be too old to fit the rapidly changing society's aspirations, or they will lack the kind of qualities needed to lead a country where the middle class is expanding much faster than the bureaucracy's ability to keep up with them.

Following Yudhoyono's appeal, two important developments have taken place. MetroTV's website has been attracting online voters to participate in an "alternative presidential candidates" poll, while newspapers have intensified publication of stories and commentaries about the need to appoint candidates other than the politicians already on stage.

Surprisingly, the online poll shows that political figures who topped the list were not the ones perceived so far as the best potential candidates. As of this week, Golkar politician Priyo Budi Santoso ranked highest with 21.34 percent of the vote, followed by Puan Maharani from Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) with 16.56 percent. PDI-P secretary general Pramono Anung got 12.76 percent, businessman Sandiaga Uno secured 11.25 percent, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan got 11.20 percent and Constitutional Court Chairman Mahfud M.D. received 10.46 percent of the vote.

Jakarta gubernatorial candidate Joko Widodo was also on the list with 4.47 percent and Paramadina University rector Anies Baswedan got 4.11 percent – much higher than World Bank Managing Director Sri Mulyani's 2.2 percent. Validity of the online polling aside, this shows that even the media is fed up with the handful of old candidates that are still ambitiously maneuvering for the 2014 election.

Meanwhile, in the print media, the past month has seen local newspapers running a series of commentaries on the need to appoint such "new faces" as Irman Gusman, chairman of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD); the Constitutional Court's Mahfud; and Abraham Samad, chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

There was also a report that the Great Indonesia Party (Gerindra) has approached Irman in a likely bid to pair him with its chairman, Prabowo Subianto, for the next presidential election. Analysts say an alliance between the two would be formidable given the influential political machines and social networks behind both of them.

But millions of Indonesian voters are already fed up with the old faces. In 2014 there will be a huge number of new voters, including approximately 30 million university and high school students, who would prefer to pick candidates that are closer in age to their generation. These young, idealistic voters belong to the anti-status-quo generation, and they are likely to vote for candidates based on their perceived ability to effect real and concrete change.

The rising sentiment against politicians pushing the old status quo was discussed extensively during a recent episode of Metro TV's "Today's Dialog" talk show.

The panel of guests included by Irman of the DPD; House Speaker Marzuki Alie; Ryaas Rasyid, an expert on state administration and member of the Presidential Advisory Council; and Hamdi Moeloek, an expert on political psychology from the University of Indonesia.

During the show, Marzuki even mentioned the name of Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo as a likely candidate, given his credibility and integrity. The finance minister recently blocked implementation of a presidential decree for realization of Rp 200 trillion ($21 billion) for the Sunda Strait bridge project that some critics said solely benefit certain private companies.

Ryaas emphasized that before talking about who should be the next president, one needs to map out the problems the nation will face in the next 10 years, establish criteria to determine what skills would be needed by the next president, and then allow as many potential candidates as possible to contest the race.

But the first thing to do, according to Ryaas, is to define clearly what is meant by "alternative presidential candidates," because this can be interpreted differently. Political parties will say this refers to party members who have not had a chance to join the race. Reformers will say this must be defined as potential candidates outside the domain of the political parties.

Irman emphasized that the nation must make room for potential candidates from every realm to present themselves and show their qualities so that voters will have enough options to choose from. He also called for a revision to the presidential election draft law to allow for more potential candidates to emerge. His name has in the past six months been cited frequently in the media as one of the alternative candidates with the most potential.

The House is preparing to deliberate on an election bill that will determine a new threshold for electing the president. Right now only political parties that win 20 percent of the popular vote or a coalition of parties that control 25 percent of legislative seats can nominate presidential candidates. But the law dictates that potential candidates other than those from political parties do not have a chance to contest the election.

Nevertheless, the new wave of aspirations being promulgated by the mass media is expected to culminate in public demand for political parties to nominate presidential candidates based on their integrity and capability, instead of their mere links to or positions in political parties.

The trouble with Indonesia today is that only the leaders of political parties – who also are the financiers – can be nominated for presidency, despite so much noise about democracy and equal opportunity. Party convention and by-election systems are considered to be a threat to advocates of the status quo.