Lowy Institute for International Policy | Indonesia Elections and the
Jokowi Presidency
OVERVIEW On 20 October 2014, Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi, was
inaugurated as the seventh president of Indonesia. The ceremony
completed the first peaceful transfer of power between two popularly
elected leaders in the world’s third-largest democracy. Jokowi,
whose term runs until 2019, succeeds Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, or SBY,
who governed for ten years. President Jokowi sees himself as a
domestic reformer rather than an international statesman in the mould
of SBY, and so will likely delegate many decisions on key foreign
policy issues to his advisers. In a new report, the Lowy Institute’s
Aaron L. Connelly previews Jokowi’s approach to foreign affairs, and
profiles several of his advisers. The Jokowi Phenomenon and the
Prabowo surge Jokowi defeated retired Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto by
6.3% in the presidential election on 9 July 2014. Prabowo challenged
the result – far closer than the winning margins in two previous
polls in 2004 and 2009 – before the General Elections Commission and
the Constitutional Court, but both institutions unanimously ruled that
Jokowi had won. Jokowi and Prabowo are a study in contrasts. Jokowi is
a middle-class furniture entrepreneur who served seven years as mayor
of the mid-sized city of Surakarta in Central Java, where he built a
consensus for a series of good government reforms that attracted
nationwide attention. Enthusiasm for his approach in Surakarta
propelled him to an upset victory in the capital Jakarta, 500km
away, in an election there in 2012. In March 2014, just 18 months
after taking the helm in Jakarta and with a wide lead in every opinion
poll, former President Megawati Sukarnoputri named Jokowi the
presidential candidate of her party, the Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle (PDI-P). Yet despite his popularity, the leadership of
PDI-P was slow to embrace Jokowi, seeing him as an outsider. As a
result, money was slow to flow to Jokowi's campaign, and it struggled
to get organized. After a month of negotiations, Jokowi and a rival,
retired Lt. General Prabowo Subianto, formed coalitions to back their
runs for president. Prabowo leads the Greater Indonesia Movement, or
Gerindra, a well-funded party backed by his tycoon brother that has
primarily been a vehicle for his presidential ambitions. Prabowo is a
Suharto Era figure who has staged a remarkable political comeback
after his dismissal from the military in 1998 following the kidnapping
of student activists at the end of Suharto’s rule, for which a
military board found him responsible. His human rights record prompts
mixed reactions in Indonesia. Polls show women in particular found it
troubling; but others say they see him as the strong, tough leader
Indonesia's noisy democracy requires. Prabowo staged a further
comeback in the late stages of the race, partly a credit both to his
extraordinarily well-funded and well-organised campaign. But perhaps
more important was a shadowy smear campaign against Jokowi that sought
to convince Indonesians that Jokowi was a Christian of Chinese descent
whose real name was Herbertus Joko Widodo. (The smears are false; he
is a Javanese Muslim). The smears spread rapidly, and required a
significant door-to-door effort in the countryside to correct the
record. With polls showing Prabowo surging from a distant second to
within a couple of percentage points against Jokowi by late June,
Jokowi’s campaign began to get its act together. Enthusastic young
volunteers unassociated with any party filled the void left by
lukewarm PDI-P support. He capped a successful campaign swing through
Java with a rock concert that thrilled young Indonesians, and a solid
debate performance. Then, as cameras rolled, he flew to Saudi Arabia
to go on a minor pilgrimage, to further beat back the smears. On
election day, he and his running mate, Jusuf Kalla, won by over 8
million votes. Coalition politics and the Cabinet Jokowi’s
victory represents a new path for political advancement in Indonesia.
Rather than working his way up the military or political party
hierarchy, as his six predecessors did, Jokowi owes his ascent to a
record of success in finishing projects and cleaning up government at
the municipal level. During the campaign, he promised to take this
approach to the national level, appointing professionals to his
Cabinet, rather than naming party leaders to posts to secure their
members' loyalty in the legislature. Yet precisely because Jokowi
presents such a threat to business as usual, the old guard in Jakarta
have coalesced in opposition to Jokowi. The coalition supporting
Jokowi’s erstwhile opponent, Prabowo Subianto, holds a tenuous
majority in the Indonesian legislature. Its leaders have pledged to
obstruct Jokowi’s reform agenda, have sought to prevent Jokowi’s
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) from controlling key
legislative posts, and have threatened inquiries into allegations of
election fraud and corruption during his tenure as governor of
Jakarta. There is little evidence for the allegations, but the
opposition could use the charges to quickly bog down Jokowi’s
presidency. Jokowi's first Cabinet revealed little willingness to
compromise with the Prabowo-led opposition by appointing its leaders
to his Cabinet, a move that might have mollified them to some degree.
The Cabinet does, however, include a number of leaders of political
parties in his coalition, many with questionable reputations, which
has disappointed the volunteers who carried his campaign to victory.
What the Lowy Institute does The Lowy Institute has provided
in-depth analysis on Indonesian politics and foreign
policy since 2003. In the lead up to the 2014 Indonesian
Presidential election, Aaron L. Connelly, Research Fellow the East
Asia Program, provided ongoing analysis on Indonesia's electoral
processes, in addition to regular Indonesia commentary by Catriona
Croft-Cusworth on The Interpreter.