Jakarta – Outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono delivered the final state of the nation address of his 10-year tenure on Friday, thanking the electorate for its "support" and painting a picture of Indonesia's transformation during his decade in the State Palace.
"On behalf of myself and my family I want to convey my gratitude and sincere appreciation to the government and all Indonesians for your support and participation in achieving the development agenda over the past 10 years," Yudhoyono said during his speech to mark the 69th anniversary of Indonesian independence.
He especially mentioned public servants working in the far-flung corners of the archipelago, from dusty frontier towns to remote jungle encampments. "Thank you for your dedication, which has been above and beyond the call of duty," Yudhoyono said.
The president reminded all members of society to protect the state ideology of Pancasila, the unity in diversity principle and the country's character.
"We have to protect our Indonesian [character]. Our struggle in the 21st century is no longer to maintain independence but to maintain our Indonesian [character]," he said.
Yudhoyono said it was of little use for Indonesia to grow into a prosperous and modern country if it were to lose its most fundamental characteristics.
He said the country's founders fought for independence until their last drops of blood and therefore it's the responsibility of the next generation to protect the nation's character.
Economic growth
Yudhoyono has overseen an almost-fourfold increase in the size of the country's economy, in dollar terms, during his decade in power, with gross domestic product in 2013 recorded at $868 billion, according to World Bank data.
The president indicated that the government expects to see tax revenues grow by 10 percent to Rp 1,370.8 trillion ($117 billion) next year compared to this year. "Such a big amount of total tax revenue will bring the tax ratio to 12.32 percent in 2015," he said.
The president said such a tax ratio took into consideration the projection that growth in the regional tax and natural resources income will reach 15.62 percent.
The government also intended to optimize tax revenues through implementation of various tax incentives, including increasing non-tax revenues, tax holidays and tax allowances in order to stimulate growth in strategic sectors to optimize the economic value.
"In line with the efforts to optimize tax revenues, steps are needed in 2015 to optimize non-tax revenues, especially from natural resources by meeting the production target, [improving] management transparency and production efficiency," the president said.
Yudhoyono said that while most Indonesians in the past were unable to read and write, the country's education system was made up of 200,000 schools, 3 million teachers and 50 million students.
The country, he said, had grown into a middle-income nation ranked as the 16th-largest economy in the world, and part of the top 10 based on purchasing power parity, which is based on the relative value of different currencies.
"After being an independent nation for almost seven decades, in this 21st century, Indonesia has become a united country that is peaceful and prosperous," he said.
Trade in the past decade reached $400 billion, while total investment, both from domestic and foreign investors, reached Rp 2,296 trillion in the same timeframe.
The nation's annual per capita income has also increased three-and-a-half-fold from Rp 10.5 million in 2004 to Rp 36.6 million in 2013. "The next government has to further enhance Indonesia's development," he said.
Yudhoyono said the government has also launched programs aimed at improving the welfare of the Indonesian people and to reduce poverty. One of these is the National Program for Community Empowerment (PNPM), which has benefited more than 60 million lives.
The government has also increased the number of people's credit banks from merely six to 33. The banks have disbursed micro-credit of up to Rp 150 trillion to around 11 million recipients in the past seven years.
Yudhoyono cited poverty eradication, better education quality and creating job opportunities as the next government's major challenges, saying that around 49 percent of the workforce still has a low educational background.
Democracy
Yudhoyono also pointed to the country's successful record on holding elections. He said his administration had been a thorn in the side of corrupt officials – with some 277 public officials having been forced out by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
The president ended his speech on an optimistic note, reminding the public of how far the country had come in its democratization drive, and of the importance of ensuring that the process continued.
"Let's all work together to guard the 2014 election process so that it stays peaceful and constitutional, just like the previous election," Yudhoyono said. "The 2014 election is not merely the fight of the elites."
Around 135 million Indonesians went to the polls in last month's vote, which the General Elections Commission (KPU) said was won by Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo. Rival candidate Prabowo Subianto contested the outcome, with the Constitutional Court (MK) expected to rule on the result by Aug. 22 and police prepared for possible street protests in the world's third-largest democracy.
The president has previously warned the political situation could "boil" should the losing candidate refuse to accept defeat. Yudhoyono said he would support the incoming president.
"We have to guard this process with peace," Yudhoyono said in the annual address, two days ahead of Independence Day on Sunday. "Political democracy has been developing well. In 15 years there have been four elections. And all went well, in peace."
Yudhoyono will hand over the baton to Joko in October. During Yudhoyono's tenure Indonesia sovereign credit rating returned to investment grade through political stability and debt reduction.
Ensuring a peaceful transfer of power is crucial for Indonesia as it seeks to assure investors the nation's closest-fought election in more than a decade won't erode economic progress.
Joko, also known as Jokowi, will inherit an economy that grew in the second quarter at its slowest pace since 2009. Southeast Asia's largest economy grew at an average 5.9 percent from 2009 to 2013, and the government has cut its debt-to-GDP ratio to 23 percent, Yudhoyono said.
The country's wealth gap has widened, challenging Yudhoyono's goal of reducing poverty before he steps down and boosting the popularity of Joko, who ran on a platform of concern for common people in the world's fourth most populous nation. Still, the country's Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, widened to 0.41 in 2012 from 0.35 in 2005, the year after Yudhoyono became president, according to the World Bank.
[Additional reporting from Bloomberg.]
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/yudhoyono-delivers-swan-song-house-ahead-independence-day/