Liberal former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was sworn in as Indonesia’s president yesterday after winning a second five-year term with promises of economic growth and political reform.
The softly spoken leader swore on the Koran to uphold the Constitution during a ceremony in the national assembly in Jakarta which was broadcast around the archipelago of 234 million people.
“By Allah I swear I will adhere to the Constitution as faithfully as possible, and will commit myself to the country and the people,” Yudhoyono said.
PHOTO: AFP
A massive security blanket descended on the center of the capital, with about 20,000 police backed by armored vehicles on hand to secure the inauguration.
The event was attended by the leaders of Australia, Brunei, East Timor, Malaysia and Singapore, as well as senior officials from around the world.
Yudhoyono, 60, trounced former president Megawati Sukarnoputri in 2004 to become the mainly Muslim country’s first directly elected head of state since the fall of late military strongman Suharto in 1998.
He did it again in July, easily defeating Democratic Party of Struggle chief Megawati as well as his vice president, the Golkar Party’s Jusuf Kalla, to become the first Indonesian leader to be democratically re-elected.
Cementing his place as the figurehead of the post-Suharto reform era, Yudhoyono’s centrist Democratic Party won the most seats in parliament in April general elections just eight years after it was founded.
He has promised to crack down on corruption, boost infrastructure spending and advance bureaucratic reform.
As the world’s third-largest democracy, Indonesia is also seeking to play a greater role in multilateral forums such as the G20 and global talks on a new climate pact.
The doctor of agricultural studies — who likes to pen romantic ballads in his spare time — has also pledged to steer Southeast Asia’s biggest economy through the global downturn.
“The essence of our program for the next five years is to improve welfare, strengthen democracy and the legal system,” Yudhoyono said. “In the middle of the economic crisis, Indonesia can still grow positively. But we cannot stay idle, as our tasks are far from over.”
“Just like a ship moving forward, we will head through an ocean full of waves and storms,” he said, referring to volatile crude oil prices and stagnant investment.
The government has predicted economic growth of 4 percent to 4.5 percent this year, third only to China and India in the G20 club of rich and major developing countries. The economy grew 6.1 percent last year.
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