He’s In!

Every year, the Time magazine produces a list of 100 people they think has greatly influenced the world. I never really wait for that particular issue, but when the magazine plopped down the driveway this morning, I knew that I just had to read who’s in the list this year. And who’s writing about him/her. That is another reason why I love the list: for each Time100er, the magazine got another famous person to write about that guy/girl. It gives another fresh view of that person since we can see it from another perspective. For me, it is also a reminder that no matter how hugely popular or immensely influential a person is, they still live in this very Earth, together. Obama and Sarkozy lives here, so does Tom Hanks and M.I.A. And no, Zac Efron does not live in Wildcats-lalalaland where one sings for every mood change.

However, this current issue of the magazine has gained relatively bigger attention from Indonesian public compared to previous list. The reason is that, a few weeks ago, our dearest leader Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (I somehow had taken to refer to him with a sarcastic “our dearest leader”) was reported to be in the list. The presidential website put up the news, after it had received a letter from Time magazine saying just so. News spread fast these days, and in a blink of an eye, there were rumors going around that it is a hoax. Yeah, following Supertoy and Blue Energy gaffe –or scandal, whichever suits your taste, it didn't sound so weird if the President had indeed received a fabricated letter. Thus, we could do nothing but wait until Time comes out with the list itself.

And yes people, he’s in! Let me get this straight, in real life I do not sound that perky or feel that happy for him. Nevertheless, this should be a source of pride for the nation because it means that the magazine have considered that SBY has influenced the world quite a lot to deserve a spot. I’m no fan of the big guy, but as far as I’m concerned, he is not a complete whack. Moreover, it should serve as a motivation to all Indonesians to really really go for it, whatever they're doing. In fact, SBY can be succeeded in the list next year by anyone, not by the next president only.

As for the writing, his spot was filled by Anwar Ibrahim, who wrote a short piece regarding SBY’s job as Indonesia’s president. I’m not gonna lie; I think Anwar did a plainly meh job of describing my president. SBY is the president of the world’s most populous Muslim nation…blah…transition to democracy…double blah…a more prominent position in Asia and throughout the Muslim world…extravagan-blah. Perhaps he should have been allowed to read what J.K. Rowling wrote of Gordon Brown or Madeleine Albright of Hillary Clinton before he began to write the piece. Note to Encik Anwar (if that’s the correct Malay way to address him): we want an insight into how outsiders perceive RI-1, not some facts we could copy-paste from Wikipedia.

For the online version, go here and don’t forget to check out the also-annual, always entertaining Joel Stein’s own version of Time 100.