This month, John Aglionby scours the archipelago to find out what, exactly, some Indonesians think of SBY.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has just marked his first year in office and the media have been busy assessing how well he has done. Most report cards have been favourable, although the country's first directly-elected leader is still considered to have problems when it comes to being decisive and some people don't think he really had the people's best interests at heart with his recent 100 per cent-plus fuel price increase.

On recent trips around the country I've been asking people what they think of Mr Yudhoyono and how his presidency has impacted their lives.

Pegawai Kurangsipil, government worker in Banjarmasin, Kalimantan:

This year has been a disaster. Over the last 12 months I've slumped from first to 14th in the office computer games league. During Megawati Sukarnoputri's presidency the only promotion I ever had to worry about was how to rise a level on the latest Nintendo game. Now I only have time to play about two hours a day in the office and that just isn't enough to stay at the top of the standings. What's even worse is that we actually have to switch off the office television for several hours a day. I've missed numerous episodes of my favourite sinetron. It has been a real shock to the system.

This is all because our bosses now come into work almost everyday and they not only expect us to do the same but actually serve the people. It has taken us the best part of the year to get used to the new mindset and it is really exhausting. Thank goodness we're in the fasting month so we have a more credible excuse to be lazy or even skive off.

My salary has also been hit hard. In the past I could moonlight as a driver for tourists several days a week and make almost an extra million rupiah a month. That's now almost gone so I'm seriously considering sending my children out to work in the local coal mine.

Hakim Berapa, district court judge in West Java:

This has undoubtedly been a year of significant change. I think I've started to develop asthma from all the dust in my law books that I'm now having to open on a regular basis. For years they just sat on the shelves doing nothing except prop up my envelope collection This is because I have actually had to spend several evenings a week reading the books because we are now expected to deliver judgments rather than merely compete to see who could amass the fattest envelope collection each month.
Who knows where this new trend might lead to. I'm fearing a posting to Sumba in East Nusa Tenggara - there is apparently a vacancy as the head of the court there and the "promotion" is hanging over many of us like a smelly fish. It just won't go away. I just can't see how my wife would survive on my judge's salary in Sumba. Please Mr President, raise our wages!!

by John Aglionby
John Aglionby is the Southeast Asia correspondent for the UK's Guardian and Observer newspapers.

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