Jakarta – Continuity, for most governments and businesses, that word is music to their ears. It is a promise to build on something pre-existing and casting away any uncertainty.

For working professionals, in this economy, continuity means job security and an opportunity to save more for a rainy day, to grow families and future-proof their lives.

For party politicians in Indonesia, who have no set income if they do not serve in the legislature or only get what is owed to them by their party or the state, continuity is a blessing, as long as you are on the winning side.

It is perhaps a moot point to say that Indonesians prefer continuity over breaks in tradition, and nowhere is that more clearly defined than in the history of our elections.

Barring the turbulent period of democratic transition, from the fall of Soeharto's authoritarian New Order regime in 1998 to the first direct presidential election in 2004, we have always allowed our leaders to serve the full extent of their term, and even decades longer.

Founding father Sukarno governed for 22 years, while Soeharto did him better with 31 years. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the immediate predecessor to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, served two full five-year terms.

The Jokowi administration will most likely finish a strong decade in power, having sold to voters the promise of continuity through president-elect Prabowo Subianto, currently the defense minister.

After all, who would not want another decade of tangible development and relative stability, propped up by the promise of shared wealth mixed with blunt nationalism?

Even Prabowo, who does not actually start work as president until October, looks comfortable rubbing elbows with world leaders like Xi Jinping of China or Singapore's Lee Hsien Loong, as if he had been doing it for decades.

It will surely be a temptation for the 72-year-old former military man not to serve just one presidential term, as some insiders have privately suggested, if he is capable of continuing his life's work in a second five-year term.

But before Prabowo can start making good on his own promise of continuity, his unofficial political sponsor, Jokowi, has to let him rise out from his own shadow.

If recent discourse is to be believed, Jokowi is expected to play a lasting role in the next government. And as long as he is there, asking for his own people to be looked after by the new government or looming large over the future of his legacies, the only continuity we foresee is undemocratic.

For the sake of a peaceful and democratic transfer to a Prabowo government, the incumbent must let go of his grasp on power and give the president-elect some space to find his own bearings, install his own people and make his own mark as the next leader of this hopeful nation.

The occasional invisible nudge of a firm hand in the right direction would be fine, but continuity overstayed is no different than autocratic rule.

Bear in mind how we remember our heroes; even the famed Father of Development, Soeharto, overstayed his welcome by a few decades.

Let us not allow continuity for continuity's sake to be the main recipe for Indonesia's future, unless we are prepared to recreate the New Order.

Jokowi must let Prabowo decide his own government to truly honor the democratic process that saw him take up the people's mandate.

As talks of the new cabinet composition reemerge, it is about time that President Jokowi prepared to step down from his privileged position, or, as the tradition of past Javanese kings dictate, lengser keprabon madeg pandhita.

Retire from one's position of power and seek heartsease as a priest seeks quietude, by letting go.

Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2024/04/30/on-letting-go.htm