RI Needs Strong Leader, Says Scientist

Jakarta (Antara) - Indonesia needs a strong leader who is able to take the right decisions during times of crisis, a scientist has said. "That leader should not doubt himself or herself and should be able to take the right decisions during times of crisis, even if those decisions make him or her unpopular," Siti Zuhro of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said here on Saturday. She was speaking at a discussion on the topic of "Presidential Candidates 2014: Electability versus Capability," which was organized by the Indonesian Research Center (IRC). The LIPI scientist recommended that people should vote for a confident candidate because self-doubting candidates could take decisions that are detrimental to the nation's interests. She noted that, in the run up to the 2014 general elections, several prominent public figures have entered the presidential candidate race. Currently, they are busy building their image in the mass media. "However, these image-building efforts through the media do not reflect the real character of a presidential candidate," she added. She expressed concern about the fact that the personalities who often appear in the mass media are popular only because of their image-building efforts, even though they have no clear track record or achievements. That could only mislead the people because voters often make their choices based on a candidate's popularity in the mass media, she warned. "We should abandon `image-building' politics because it can mislead the people," the LIPI researcher said, adding that Indonesia needs a firm leader with a proven track record. Siti Zuhro also believes the Indonesian situation currently reflects the fact that several problems, which should have been solved, continue to fester. "Mistakes are now seen as normal, and once made, are shrugged off without efforts to make any clarifications or undertake evaluations," she said. Therefore, she hoped that the Indonesian people would vote smartly and critically for a strong leader who defends the people's interest. (*)