Looking at President Yudhoyono’s cabinet line up, where twenty out of the 37 ministers were chosen because of their political parties (some unheard of before or having no known track records), I cannot help but wonder what sort of government we will have, especially without a mercurial VP like Jusuf Kalla at his side livening things up.
Perhaps the whole idea is for the President to keep his helpers on a tight leash by making sure they were his trusted friends and aides to begin with, thus lessening the chances for potential dissent in parliament and obstacles in getting things done. However, having an unqualified minister heading a ministerial department might present problems both for the minister and the bureaucratic team itself.
Not only that, the minister might not be able to give professional advice to the president over what needs to be done, leading to policies that might not be in the interest of the country as a whole, but based rather on narrow political interests or equally bad, plain ignorance. In which case, the onus is on the president to come up with the best policies and decisions on a lot of things, though knowing his penchant for dithering, it’s difficult to imagine the coming government as a gung-ho one with the vim and vigour to get things done fast.
One would think that a landslide victory in a one-round election would afford the president enough confidence to exert his power in a much more decisive way, especially when it came to really important things like choosing his ministers.
Of course, it is too early to cast judgment on the quality of this second United Indonesia Cabinet, and we could only hope that SBY is a wise enough statesman not to abuse his power or renege on his campaign promises, and that his selection of professionals would more than make up for the mainly anodyne team of ministers. So the proper thing for now is to wish him and his government the best of luck in steering this nation towards justice, prosperity and democracy in the next five years, and ensure that we check on its progress in a hundred days.
What I find a cause for concern, however, is what happens to power especially when that power is thrust upon those who are not only ill-prepared but undeserving and incompetent? And I’m not solely talking about positions in government, though this is particularly important seeing we rely on these people to use their power to make crucial decisions regarding the welfare of the country.
To begin with, no doubt those who were given positions of power - as opposed to meriting the position through career, expertise and proven track record - would be unlikely to view themselves as either undeserving or unprepared. But they will be faced with the burden of responsibility and expectation to use that power, and how that power is wielded depends very much on their level of confidence and their level of competence.
What makes Sri Mulyani such an effective minister, for example, is precisely due to her level of confidence in her own ability when it comes to finding solutions and making the right decisions – a confidence that is based on real capability and proven track record of good judgment. In other words, she knows what she’s doing and she uses her power to get the job done. And for this, she gets the respect and our confidence.
But what about power given to those who have neither the confidence nor the competence, or worse still, the confidence but not the capability? Our world unfortunately is rife with examples of power wielded by those less than competent, whether in government or in companies. Which is fine as long as they are smart enough to put their trust in their more competent subordinates and allow them to get the job done. The problem comes when they actually want to use that power for power’s sake and ends up abusing it.
A recent article in Newsweek cites an interesting academic research done in The United States on why is it that power corrupts some people, and why some people in power are abusive and aggressive. The answer, according to studies conducted by psychologists, is not in the power itself, but in the interaction of power with feelings of inadequacy. In other words, power mixed with incompetence is toxic.
This is because, to quote the article ‘a person who gain power pressure themselves to perform at a higher level, and thus are more apt at to feel inadequate in their powerful role. This threatens their ego and they become defensive…’
In the case of the president, perhaps that power is shadowed by its nemesis, namely insecurity about his position so that decisions are made based more on fear rather than the clarity of confidence. We can only hope that his ministers have the competence and confidence not to become mere flatterers of their bosses’ ego or abusive of their position due to their own incompetence.
(Desi Anwar: first published in The Jakarta Globe)
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/hide comments
Show/hide comment form
