Congratulation to our New Minister of Health

Last Wednesday at 21^st October 2009, Our President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono aka SBY announce his new cabinet. This cabinet was called KABINET INDONESIA BERSATU Jilid II (United Indonesia Cabinet part II). To select all the ministers for this cabinet, SBY used fit and proper test. There are some steps that all candidates must through, and all of them must passed the health screening.  There is a controversial after SBY announced this cabinet, because one candidate that has been announced in the media wasn’t in this cabinet. Nila Joewita Moeloek, who was a candidate for minister of health, was replaced by Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih in “the last minute” before the announcement. The reason of this replacement is because Mrs. Moeloek hasn’t passed the health screening. Because of that sudden change, many people judge SBY embarrassed Mrs.  Moeloek. Besides that, many people judge Endang Sedyaningsih wasn’t capable to sit in this position because she’s only echelon II in Department of Health (DoH), and then they treat her as a traitor  because she had collaborated with United States of Naval Medical Research Unit-2 (US NAMRU-2), as a researcher. Well, first of all, let’s ignore about this issue, and we can see our new minister of health’s background.

dr. Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih, MPH, DR.PH born in Jakarta at 1^st February 1955. She got her bachelor degree from Faculty of medicine University of Indonesia at 1979, and her master and doctoral degree from Harvard School of Public Health at 1992 and 1997. She’s the director of Center for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research & Programme Development National Institute of Health Research & Development-MOH since 2007. And in 2001, Endang was working at World Health Organization (WHO) in Jenewa, Swiss ^(1,2). Her publications can be seen in BiomedExperts.  There are so many publications written by her collaborated with her colleagues who are varied from Indonesia and another country

In my opinion, she is capable to do her job as a Minister of Health. It wasn’t easy to be accepted as an undergraduate student at University of Indonesia, especially it wasn’t easy to be accepted at Harvard. So I think she has “something” to offer for this country. She has many experiences working with many people that have different cultures, it made her mind WIDER and of course she has erudition. And with her background in research, I hope Indonesia will put more concern in that field. Research and development can help Indonesia to become healthier and stronger country. About her collaboration with US NAMRU-2 that has been one of the reasons for the controversial, she mentioned that she’s collaborating with many countries and US NAMRU is one of them. She said that this collaboration will be continued but in different shape, more transparent and gives benefits to both country. The US Navy will not interrupt the institution, and US-NAMRU-2 will collaborate with CDC and also NIH, it will change its name into Indonesia-USAaid Center for Biomedical and Public Health Research (IUC).

For many people who against her promotion as Minister of Health, please don’t use Indonesia as your excuse, because not every people in this nation against and underestimate dr. Endang. For every people who underestimate her, let her prove  her capability to this nation first before you say that she will be replaced in 100 days. Let us support our new cabinet and try to do our part. Congratulation for dr. Endang, hope so you can prove your self that you are fit for this position and bring some improvements to this country and also bring a fresh air to our research fields ..^^ ..Gbu

Indonesia’s Presidential debate

Presidential Election will be held at 8 July 2009 with three candidates. The first one is Mrs. Megawati Soekarno Putri, the former Indonesia’s president with Mr. Prabowo as her vice president; The second candidate is Mr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono- SBY, our recent president with his vice president, Mr. Boediyono; And the last is Mr. Jusuf Kala or also known as JK – our recent vice president- with Mr. Wiranto as the vice president.

Each candidate has their own slogan. Mega-Prabowo has a slogan “Mega Pro – Pro rakyat,” or in English is Mega pro commoner. The commoner here referring to “wong cilik” which mean a people who can’t strive for themselves or sarcastically we can say as poor people. SBY-Boediono say “Lanjutkan!” – it means continue all the good things  that SBY has done these 5 years. And JK-wiranto’s slogan is “lebih cepat, lebih baik” – Faster is better. This slogan can be used to tease SBY because some people think SBY is too slow in making decision.

During the campaign, many banners have been spread around the nation, and many advertisements have been broadcasted in every channel, and there are also many ways of campaigning. The funny thing for me is their supporter and sometimes themselves tease each other..X)… And until today, the presidential debate has been conducted twice, and once for the vice presidential debate.

From my observation, these three candidates have their own uniqueness and also weakness. From these debates, I observed that the first candidate likes to open her speech with this sentence, “When I was a president…..bla bla bla…”.There always “when I was bla bla bla…”…She said the same sentence too to answer other candidate, “Ow, right, when you was in my cabinet”, or “Right, when you work for me”…Well..We live in present, not in the past..^^…And when she speaks I cannot see an eye contact, so there is no interaction between her and the audiences. Her speech and also her answers is not focus and over timed.Actually, I cannot see any advantage in choosing her as our next president.

The second candidate, SBY, who has a face like Nobita’s father..Xp, has a charisma as a leader. And what I like from him, he always answers the questions, point by point with precise time.So we can see that he has a good time management. He also makes a good interaction with the audience using eye contact and body languages.  And I never imagine that he can tell a joke using JK’s slogan. He said that He can be as fast as JK too…^^…

In the other side, JK as the third candidate always answer every question enthusiastically, with his body language and sometimes he will answer something spontaneously..When we see him talking/debating, we’ll feel his enthusiasm too. And he always keep his eye contact..he answered SBY joke with a sentence, “I can also continue what SBY has done”. Unluckily, he didn’t use his time wisely, so he can’t finished his answers at the time. But overall he is quite good.

The vice presidential debate was held last Tuesday, from the speech, I think Wiranto has the best speech and answers, but the others still give a good answers too. Boediono gave some perspectives, but same like JK, he didn’t use his time precisely, so for some questions, he can’t finished the answers.

The three candidates have tried to attract citizen’s sympathy, and now is our responsibility to choose our next leader for this country. Every people have their own choice and judgments. Hope so we can respect others’ choice and whoever the president and vice president will be, they will give their best to serve this country. And I also hope there will be no riot after this election. I’m praying the best for this country.

Nb. I hope whoever the president, He/she won’t choose Siti fadilah Supari as the Minister of Health (it’s only my opinion..Xp)