For this post, I’ll try to make it in English (some short comments will be written in Bahasa). There might be some errors in Grammar and Structure. Well, I don’t really care ‘bout that, as long as it is “readable”.
Last Sunday, Our KPU-elected Vice President came to Singapore. We, Indonesian in Singapore, were invited to have a short talk with him at Embassy. Actually, He was invited by RSIS NTU to have a Seminar on Tuesday. Thus, Indonesia Embassy took this rare chance to “introduce” Mr. Boediono to us.
Of course, I don’t wanna miss this great opportunity (mumpung belum resmi jadi Wapres, dia masih mau “merakyat). Even though if you read my posting “Surat Buat (pak) Yudhoyono” , you might conclude that I don’t really like him as a VP.
Now the question is, did I change my opinion on him after the talk?
Well, before I speak out my opinion, let’s read this very interesting note by my friend, Indra Purnama. He post this note at his Facebook Profile.
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B for Boediono, B for Badass??
Today at 9:27pm
Ok, because recently our excellence Vice President (gonna be) Prof Boediono came to Singapore and gave a talk at the Indonesian Embassy, I just want to share my impression on him. Dont expect this note to be properly written or to cover any of his political moves, because the day Indra Purnama writes something intelligent or close to that is the day you will see Tyas Kokasih smokes in public, i.e not going to happen.

He is smart and also badass, so it is like having two mcspicy-s in one burger, double the awesomeness
Just like rice is called Oryza Sativa for a certain reason (which sadly does not make much sense to most people), therefore me as the writer of this note also has to state the reason why he labels Boediono with ‘badass’ title.

Rice, called Oryza Sativa, as for the reason, nobody cares…..
The talk which I mentioned earlier was held at the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore, Boediono’s real prurpose for coming to Singapore was to give talk at RSIS (Rajaratnam School of International Studies), but because it was said that more than 80% of voters of the recent Indonesia presidential election here gave their vote to the SBY-Boediono pair, therefore he decided to give us a visit as a way to show his appreciation.

science, for those who does not study it it sounds cool…
The first thing that caught my attention was a part of his speech where he said that ‘it is of course desirable that those who study aboard to come back to Indonesia so that they can help in developing Indonesia, but as it stands now, it is understandable if they decide to work aboard too’…….WOW finally someone who understands….Ok, yours truly here has not even graduated, but not once he saw people not approving those who decided to work abroad, not once he saw people labeling them ‘traitor’ without any reason whatsoever. For better example, let’s take the case of a certain Indonesian student (R.I.P) that happened in NTU some months ago, just go online and then see how some ,if not most, of the reactions that came from those that live in Indonesia, they blatantly scorn us. Please people, even for that specific case, in which scientific development was concerned, Indonesia did not lose anything even if somehow his research finding was published, Indonesia could still benefit from it, hell what needed was just access to scientific journal. So in short Indonesia does not lose that much by having her people to work abroad, in some cases she can even benefit from it. So cheers for Boediono for showing that he at least understands us.

Global World:It is not the time to act all high and mighty anymore
The second thing that amazed me was this words of his: "For the infrastructures, we have neighbors that we can take example from". AWESOME. It is perfectly acceptable to have pride in own’s self achievement, but it is also the fact that to improve, one has to know one own’s standing. I always feel sad whenever I hear this statement: "Damn Malaysian, dont act all high and mighty, some decades ago it was you who came to Indonesia to study from us….", I Just cant understand this, we have a neighbor in which she is also composed of mostly Malay race, just like our beloved country Indonesia, but we cant work together just because some past grudge and baseless pride? So again cheers for Boediono for understanding.

I just love him XD
The third awesome speech was when one of the audience stood up and then announced that he is the leader of the ‘Tim Sukses’ for Demokrat (Yay me for lame English :’D). This was really the highlight of the night for me. That dude then with full confidence told Boediono that that 80% was because of his doing, then after that he mentioned that he is also a businessman and he just made a deal with some other businessmen in which he needed Boediono to participate in the deal. Way to go to ashame yourself dude, you just show public that you worked for goverment to be able to do some backdoor agreements. But what was AWESOME was that, Boediono just simply laughed and said: "a good goverment is a goverment in which backdoor deals are not present", after hearing that my jaw just dropped and then I joined the crowd to give Boediono the applause he soo deserved for that answer. He’s badass indeed…
Actually much more awesomeness can be extracted from his speech back then, but because the writer is such a lazy and stupid person he will just end it here. Thank you for reading XD

So Who’s awesome? You ARE if u manage to read up to this point XD
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After you read this awesome post, you might be easily conclude that he really liked the way Mr. Boediono talk on that day.
Let’s BTT, Do I Change my perspective on him?
The answer is “NO”
I still didn’t really like him to become the VP. Why? My argument is very simple. From the way he talks, from the way he points out his argument, it’s just the same with our President, Mr. SBY.
Well, Some people might say, “It’s good, right? The government will be strongly bonded, no different opinion between both of them”.
No, I didn’t say that if we have the same P and VP perspectives on an issue. What I would like to point out is that both of them are “Too normative”.
One comment in that note that disagree with my opinion, said like this:
@habibi: justru yang normatif itulah yang rasional…..
aku suka part waktu dia ngomong: rakyat indonesia sudah cukup pandai untuk memilih pemimpin dengan program yang rasional, ga terlalu muluk muluk.. (tentu saja sudah saya parafrase karna dah lupa ucapan aslinya…)
Hmm…
Interesting point, isn’t it?
But then, those answers are just too easy to be said, in other words, *quoted from my friend’s statement*, “tipikal jawaban text book”.
You know la, those “text-book” answers are easily acceptable.
*Doh, capek nulis pake bahasa inggris, banyakan mikirnya. Nyambung pake bahasa Indo aja deh.
Kalau kita teliti lagi, semua jawaban mereka itu ga ada yg konkrit. Semua masih ABU-ABU Kata-kata seperti, “Kita akan meninjau…”, “Kita akan mencatat pendapat Anda…”, dan lain-lain. Jujur, saya paling ga suka jawaban seperti ini.
Saya malah lebih suka sama pemimpin yang berani mengatakan perbuatan yang akan ia lakukan secara Konkrit. Dengan demikian, jika dia memang terpilih, dia akan merasa bertanggung jawab untuk melakukannya. Tidak seperti jawaban-jawaban ABU-ABU. Kita tidak bisa dengan mudah menutut jawaban ga jelas begitu. Karena toh, pada intinya “THEY PROMISE NOTHING”.
Mungkin banyak orang berpendapat, “Ah, bodo amat. Tuh liat aja Pak SBY yang tipikal kayak gitu bisa sukses memimpin Indonesia 2004-2009”.
Ok, I have to agree with it. Tapi, kita lihat dong, apakah VP nya Pak SBY dulu memiliki perspektik yang sama dengan dia? Tentu tidak kan? Pak JK lebih berani Ngomong. Kalau "1” ya “satu”, kalau “0” ya “nol”. Mana ada istilah “setengah”.
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Sebenernya, kemarin saya ingin bertanya kepada Pak Boediono. Ada beberapa point yang menurut saya penting untuk dijawab olehnya. Tapi sayang, walaupun udah tunjuk tangan, waktu yg diberikan “terlalu singkat” untuk menjawab semua pertanyaan-pertanyaan warga Indonesia disini. Jadinya, kesempatan yang sangat langka ini pun sirna.
Ini adalah statement yang sudah saya pikirkan akan saya sampaikan kepada Pak Boediono.
Selamat Malam Pak. Saya Abdurrachman Habibi. Sekarang saya adalah mahasiswa di NTU.
Saya ingin langsung ke pertanyaan saja, karena lebih cepat dijawab akan lebih baik.
Kali ini, pertanyaan saya akan melihat dari sudut pandang Bapak sebagai Wakil Presiden, bukan sebagai Pemerintah pada umumnya.
Pertanyaan saya sederhana.
Pertama, Kok bisa Bapak yang terpilih sebagai WP? Menurut Bapak sendiri, alasan apa yang menyebabkan Bapak dipilih sebagai WP oleh Pak SBY? Bukan Pak Hatta, HNW atau bahkan Bu Sri Mulyani yang selalu digembar-gemborkan media sebelum pengumuman WP? Bahkan, selama saya mengikuti pemberitaan media, saya tidak pernah mendengar nama Bapak tercetus sedikit pun.
Kedua, Saya ingin bertanya. Menurut Bapak, Apa sih kelemahan-kelemahan dari pemerintahan Pak SBY sebelumnya, sehingga seorang Pak Boediono harus dipilih mendampingi Pak SBY? Apa saja yang bisa Bapak kontribusikan kepada Pemerintahan pada khususnya dan Indonesia pada umumnya, yang tidak bisa diberikan oleh Pak SBY pada periode sebelum ini? Saya mohon dijawab dengan memberikan 1 atau 2 contoh konkrit ya Pak.
Terima kasih atas kesempatannya, Selamat Malam
Saya sih berharap nya, Pak Boediono dapet memberikan jawaban yang bisa membuat saya yakin kepada Pak Boediono. Namun sayang, mungkin kesempatan itu memang belum ada.
After all, that seminar had made me more certain that on the Presidential Election
“I still think that I didn’t choose the wrong candidate”
I’m very sorry to say this, but this is just an opinion from A Citizen.
Salam,
Habibi Alkaff
*berharap semoga yang datang memberikan talk/seminar suatu saat nanti adalah Pak SBY.