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Indonesia all set to elect its next leadership

Indonesia all set to elect its next leadership

With Indonesians gearing up to vote for the country’s next President and Vice President, the world looks up to them to elect a capable and strong leadership

As India, the largest democracy of the world,  is poised to elect its new government, one of its oldest allies in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, will elect its new President this month. The world’s largest archipelagic country is the third largest democracy after India and the US. Indonesia is heading towards a stronger democratic set-up after 15 years of stable Government — the first led by former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, popularly known as SBY, and then Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi.

This writer has just come back after a week-long trip to Java island where a majority of the population concentrates. During the previous trip in October last year, there wasn’t much to talk about the presidential elections but now, after five months, one can notice a paradigm shift in the way Indonesians are thinking about the elections. A country that reeled under 31 years of dictatorship of Soeharto, the second President of Indonesia, is now fast becoming more decisive in choosing its eighth President.

In 1998, the country transited from 31 years of long dictatorship of Soeharto when he was ousted from office. The 15-year rule of SBY and the current Government helped the country become a stable economic power amid rampant corruption  among Government officials. It also witnessed a few incidents like terrorist attacks in three Churches in Surabaya in May 2018 and the imprisonment of a dynamic and pro-development leader belonging to the minority community, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, in 2016 in the name of blasphemy and inciting violence alleged by Muslim hardliners during Jokowi’s tenure.

As Indonesia grappled with an economic crisis, coupled with ethnic and sectarian clashes in 1998, the country saw three consecutive short-term Presidents — BJ Habibie, Abdurrhaman Wahid and Megawati Soekarnoputri, who was defeated by SBY in 2004. SBY ruled for two consecutive terms till 2014 when an ordinary man, Joko Widodo, who had no elite political or military background, was elected as President.

Jokowi, a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), was the Mayor of Surakarta — a small city in central Java —  from 2005-2012. He became very popular among the mass due to his hard work and fast-track problem-solving skills, which made him the best choice to become the Governor of Jakarta in late 2012. He remained in the limelight due to his policies, mostly driven by infrastructure development and focussed on the marginalised section of the society. The PDI-P, led by Sukarnoputri Megawati, backed his candidature for the President in 2014, which he won but not comfortably with just over 53 per cent of the votes against former military general Prabowo Subianto. This time again, Jokowi is running for re-election scheduled on April 17 with a handful of success stories. His counterpart, Prabowo Subianto, is a very strong candidate who has been successful in garnering support from a few conservative Muslim groups by accusing Jokowi of being pro-Chinese, who opened the red-carpet for Chinese investors in the country.

Focussing on infrastructural development, speeding up the most-awaited project of metro train in Jakarta, Jokowi sped up the work on inter-city connectivity in the country, having more than 17,000 islands. Located on the ring of fire, the country faced numerous natural disasters during his tenure. However, he made sure that maximum transparency be maintained in the rehabilitation programmes.

Jokowi placed his first priority on protecting Indonesia’s sovereignty by taking many steps to strengthen maritime boundaries by stopping and  sinking foreign vessels engaged in illegal fishing and harvesting sea-weed despite high criticism from neighbouring countries. He struck hard on drug mafia and traffickers by approving capital punishment despite intense pressure from his ally countries like Australia, France and human rights groups across the world.

His counterpart and the present Opposition leader, Prabowo, is running again with a changed strategy and has projected himself as being accommodative of Islam’s cause and is sceptical towards ethnic Chinese by touching a soft chord of the majority of conservative and poor Muslims, who think their economic development is directly impeded by the ethnic Chinese in the country. Subianto, with his running mate Sandiaga Uno, a renowned entrepreneur running for Vice President, has been critical of Jokowi’s pro-Chinese policy that places the duo in a bit stronger position.

During my interaction with some local people in different regions in Java, I found that a majority of them view Prabowo as belonging to the clan of Soeharto, whose 31 years of rule witnessed rampant corruption which became a culture popularly known as “envelop culture.” Corruption still plagues Indonesia. The country languishes in the 89th place of 180 countries in the global rankings of corruption, according to Transparency International. Subianto launched the Great Indonesia Movement Party in 2009 and has a mixed background of being a retired army general and a businessman. He rose to a very high position in the Indonesian Army as a Lieutenant General and was in the news for his swift rise in military positions,  being a son-in-law of former President Soeharto.

Comparing both the presidential candidates, Setia Budi, a moderate Muslim middle-aged cab driver, said, “Prabowo is from a military background and he may turn to be a dictator like his father-in-law, Soeharto. He is full of attitude and is very rich. On the other hand, Jokowi, belonging to the lower middle class like us, leads a very simple life. He is very polite and keeps fast for the whole month during Ramadan but never shows it off. He does what he talks. Therefore, Budi is going to vote for Jokowi.”

Prabowo became infamous internationally for his covert operations in East Timor in 1996 in order to suppress the rebellions, which led to human right abuses in the country. In 1998, he was promoted as the head of the 27,000-strong Army Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad), which is a key Jakarta garrison meant to supervise operational readiness among all the commands and carries out defence and security operations as per the policies of the Indonesian Army commander. Having served in the Army at a very high position, Prabowo, a successful businessman now, has emerged as a shrewd politician and has brought smaller political parties to his side. This time, posing as a pious Muslim, he has assured the safety of ulemas, restored respect and fight to free them from criminal threats against Jokowi’s decision to dismiss an ultra-radical group, Hizbut Tahrir, which aimed to establish an Islamic caliphate in Indonesia.  Apart from giving moral support to the religious leaders, he has also promised to help improve the conditions of religious schools in the country.

The country’s political system is based on constitutional democracy. The legislature is made up of two bodies and has a total of 692 MPs. There are the 560-member House of Representatives (DPR) and the 132-member Regional Representatives’ Assembly (DPD) with four representatives from each of the 33 provinces of Indonesia. The Indonesian system of selection of legislators is complex unlike the Indian parliamentary system. In Indonesia, someone can be a member of DPR even though he/she has got less votes than his/her opponent. For the DPR, each Province has been divided into 1-10 constituencies or electoral districts, which finally has 3-10 seats, depending on its size and population. To make his candidature stronger, Jokowi has chosen a popular Muslim scholar Ma’ruf Amin as his running mate for the Vice President in order to connect with the larger section of the conservative Muslims.

Indonesia, a country rich in human and natural resource, has been faced with unemployment problems, too. The costly education system prevents many aspirants to go for higher education, leaving many young students — aged between 14 and 17 years — to seek low-paid jobs, mostly in the booming hotel and service industries. Indonesia has become the world’s seventh largest economy due to its purchasing power capacity. According to the World Bank, the country needs massive investment to develop its massive infrastructural projects, create employment opportunities and streamline its economy.

Islamic fundamentalist groups are trying hard to pronounce their presence in a rather syncretic social system that has been influenced by its long history of the presence of Hinduism and Buddhist empires by opening up more madrasas, making it compulsory for Muslim women to wear headscarves in the rural and semi-urban areas. However, already exposed to Western culture during a long rule of Suharto, the majority of the populace doesn’t seem to be tamed easily by the call of conservative Muslim groups. As the world looks up to Indonesia to throw a viable and strong leadership and have a say in the international issue like the ever-brewing South China Sea dispute, its mature electorate is gearing up to show the power of democracy.

(The writer is a Southeast Asian analyst at the Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Writer: Gautam jha

Courtesy: The Pioneer

Indonesia all set to elect its next leadership

Indonesia all set to elect its next leadership

With Indonesians gearing up to vote for the country’s next President and Vice President, the world looks up to them to elect a capable and strong leadership

As India, the largest democracy of the world,  is poised to elect its new government, one of its oldest allies in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, will elect its new President this month. The world’s largest archipelagic country is the third largest democracy after India and the US. Indonesia is heading towards a stronger democratic set-up after 15 years of stable Government — the first led by former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, popularly known as SBY, and then Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi.

This writer has just come back after a week-long trip to Java island where a majority of the population concentrates. During the previous trip in October last year, there wasn’t much to talk about the presidential elections but now, after five months, one can notice a paradigm shift in the way Indonesians are thinking about the elections. A country that reeled under 31 years of dictatorship of Soeharto, the second President of Indonesia, is now fast becoming more decisive in choosing its eighth President.

In 1998, the country transited from 31 years of long dictatorship of Soeharto when he was ousted from office. The 15-year rule of SBY and the current Government helped the country become a stable economic power amid rampant corruption  among Government officials. It also witnessed a few incidents like terrorist attacks in three Churches in Surabaya in May 2018 and the imprisonment of a dynamic and pro-development leader belonging to the minority community, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, in 2016 in the name of blasphemy and inciting violence alleged by Muslim hardliners during Jokowi’s tenure.

As Indonesia grappled with an economic crisis, coupled with ethnic and sectarian clashes in 1998, the country saw three consecutive short-term Presidents — BJ Habibie, Abdurrhaman Wahid and Megawati Soekarnoputri, who was defeated by SBY in 2004. SBY ruled for two consecutive terms till 2014 when an ordinary man, Joko Widodo, who had no elite political or military background, was elected as President.

Jokowi, a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), was the Mayor of Surakarta — a small city in central Java —  from 2005-2012. He became very popular among the mass due to his hard work and fast-track problem-solving skills, which made him the best choice to become the Governor of Jakarta in late 2012. He remained in the limelight due to his policies, mostly driven by infrastructure development and focussed on the marginalised section of the society. The PDI-P, led by Sukarnoputri Megawati, backed his candidature for the President in 2014, which he won but not comfortably with just over 53 per cent of the votes against former military general Prabowo Subianto. This time again, Jokowi is running for re-election scheduled on April 17 with a handful of success stories. His counterpart, Prabowo Subianto, is a very strong candidate who has been successful in garnering support from a few conservative Muslim groups by accusing Jokowi of being pro-Chinese, who opened the red-carpet for Chinese investors in the country.

Focussing on infrastructural development, speeding up the most-awaited project of metro train in Jakarta, Jokowi sped up the work on inter-city connectivity in the country, having more than 17,000 islands. Located on the ring of fire, the country faced numerous natural disasters during his tenure. However, he made sure that maximum transparency be maintained in the rehabilitation programmes.

Jokowi placed his first priority on protecting Indonesia’s sovereignty by taking many steps to strengthen maritime boundaries by stopping and  sinking foreign vessels engaged in illegal fishing and harvesting sea-weed despite high criticism from neighbouring countries. He struck hard on drug mafia and traffickers by approving capital punishment despite intense pressure from his ally countries like Australia, France and human rights groups across the world.

His counterpart and the present Opposition leader, Prabowo, is running again with a changed strategy and has projected himself as being accommodative of Islam’s cause and is sceptical towards ethnic Chinese by touching a soft chord of the majority of conservative and poor Muslims, who think their economic development is directly impeded by the ethnic Chinese in the country. Subianto, with his running mate Sandiaga Uno, a renowned entrepreneur running for Vice President, has been critical of Jokowi’s pro-Chinese policy that places the duo in a bit stronger position.

During my interaction with some local people in different regions in Java, I found that a majority of them view Prabowo as belonging to the clan of Soeharto, whose 31 years of rule witnessed rampant corruption which became a culture popularly known as “envelop culture.” Corruption still plagues Indonesia. The country languishes in the 89th place of 180 countries in the global rankings of corruption, according to Transparency International. Subianto launched the Great Indonesia Movement Party in 2009 and has a mixed background of being a retired army general and a businessman. He rose to a very high position in the Indonesian Army as a Lieutenant General and was in the news for his swift rise in military positions,  being a son-in-law of former President Soeharto.

Comparing both the presidential candidates, Setia Budi, a moderate Muslim middle-aged cab driver, said, “Prabowo is from a military background and he may turn to be a dictator like his father-in-law, Soeharto. He is full of attitude and is very rich. On the other hand, Jokowi, belonging to the lower middle class like us, leads a very simple life. He is very polite and keeps fast for the whole month during Ramadan but never shows it off. He does what he talks. Therefore, Budi is going to vote for Jokowi.”

Prabowo became infamous internationally for his covert operations in East Timor in 1996 in order to suppress the rebellions, which led to human right abuses in the country. In 1998, he was promoted as the head of the 27,000-strong Army Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad), which is a key Jakarta garrison meant to supervise operational readiness among all the commands and carries out defence and security operations as per the policies of the Indonesian Army commander. Having served in the Army at a very high position, Prabowo, a successful businessman now, has emerged as a shrewd politician and has brought smaller political parties to his side. This time, posing as a pious Muslim, he has assured the safety of ulemas, restored respect and fight to free them from criminal threats against Jokowi’s decision to dismiss an ultra-radical group, Hizbut Tahrir, which aimed to establish an Islamic caliphate in Indonesia.  Apart from giving moral support to the religious leaders, he has also promised to help improve the conditions of religious schools in the country.

The country’s political system is based on constitutional democracy. The legislature is made up of two bodies and has a total of 692 MPs. There are the 560-member House of Representatives (DPR) and the 132-member Regional Representatives’ Assembly (DPD) with four representatives from each of the 33 provinces of Indonesia. The Indonesian system of selection of legislators is complex unlike the Indian parliamentary system. In Indonesia, someone can be a member of DPR even though he/she has got less votes than his/her opponent. For the DPR, each Province has been divided into 1-10 constituencies or electoral districts, which finally has 3-10 seats, depending on its size and population. To make his candidature stronger, Jokowi has chosen a popular Muslim scholar Ma’ruf Amin as his running mate for the Vice President in order to connect with the larger section of the conservative Muslims.

Indonesia, a country rich in human and natural resource, has been faced with unemployment problems, too. The costly education system prevents many aspirants to go for higher education, leaving many young students — aged between 14 and 17 years — to seek low-paid jobs, mostly in the booming hotel and service industries. Indonesia has become the world’s seventh largest economy due to its purchasing power capacity. According to the World Bank, the country needs massive investment to develop its massive infrastructural projects, create employment opportunities and streamline its economy.

Islamic fundamentalist groups are trying hard to pronounce their presence in a rather syncretic social system that has been influenced by its long history of the presence of Hinduism and Buddhist empires by opening up more madrasas, making it compulsory for Muslim women to wear headscarves in the rural and semi-urban areas. However, already exposed to Western culture during a long rule of Suharto, the majority of the populace doesn’t seem to be tamed easily by the call of conservative Muslim groups. As the world looks up to Indonesia to throw a viable and strong leadership and have a say in the international issue like the ever-brewing South China Sea dispute, its mature electorate is gearing up to show the power of democracy.

(The writer is a Southeast Asian analyst at the Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Writer: Gautam jha

Courtesy: The Pioneer

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