Quick questions on Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Presidency 2004: HSC Modern History Indonesia

The 2004 presidential election was the first under direct popular vote. The third constitutional amendment (November 2001) had introduced direct election; the fourth amendment (August 2002) had completed the procedural framework. Under the amended UUD 1945, a winning ticket required more than 50 per cent of the national vote and over 20 per cent in more than half the provinces; otherwise a runoff between the top two pairs would be held.

Five tickets contested the first round.

The first round produced no majority. Final results: Yudhoyono-Kalla 33.57 per cent (39.8 million votes); Megawati-Hasyim 26.61 per cent; Wiranto-Salahuddin 22.15 per cent; Amien Rais-Siswono 14.66 per cent; Hamzah Haz-Agum Gumelar 3.01 per cent. Turnout was 78.2 per cent of 153 million registered voters.

Both candidates campaigned on broadly similar platforms: more economic growth, stronger anti-corruption, defence of national unity. The substantive difference was generational and stylistic. Yudhoyono presented as a calm, reformist former general; Megawati's reputation was for political reticence and clientelism.

Yudhoyono was sworn in on 20 October 2004 at the MPR building in Jakarta. Megawati did not attend, a public snub, but the transfer of executive power at the State Palace was peaceful. Indonesia, which had ended Sukarno's rule in 1966 to 1967 and Suharto's rule in 1998 through extraconstitutional pressure, had now transferred presidential power through a popular vote.

The first Yudhoyono cabinet ("Kabinet Indonesia Bersatu," United Indonesia Cabinet) was sworn in on 21 October 2004 with 34 members balanced across coalition partners. Sri Mulyani Indrawati at State Planning (later Finance from December 2005) and Mari Pangestu at Trade became internationally credible technocrats. Boediono (BAPPENAS chair, later finance minister 2005 and Vice-President 2009) anchored macroeconomic management.

The HSC national study syllabus closes in 2005. By that date the Indonesian transition begun on 21 May 1998 had produced free and fair direct elections, four constitutional amendments, an independent court, an effective counter-terrorism capacity, the end of Aceh's 29-year insurgency, and the international reintegration of Indonesian foreign policy. The Republic that emerged from these years was the world's third-largest democracy, the fourth most populous country, the largest Muslim-majority democracy, and a G20 economy.

R. William Liddle and Saiful Mujani ("Indonesia in 2004," Asian Survey 2005) treat the 2004 election as the consolidation of Indonesian democracy and the closure of the Reformasi transition.

The first round eliminated Wiranto (GOLKAR), and the runoff between Yudhoyono and Megawati was genuinely competitive in early polls.

The constitutional change was 2002 (fourth amendment); the first vote was 2004. The 1999 presidential vote was still by the MPR.

The 5 April 2004 DPR election shaped the presidential field through the candidate threshold.

It is the end of the syllabus period, but Reformasi as a political project continued well beyond 2005.