The deals have been finalized, the documents verified, health conditions checked upon, ballot numbers drawn and the talking heads on most television channels determined to indulge Indonesians with nauseating doses of the country’s favorite pastime: analyzing politics. That’s right – election season, part deux is upon us. Having turned out in droves to achieve an impressive voter turnout of 75.11% in the April 9 legislative elections, Indonesian voters will once again head to the polling booths on July 9 to take part in one of the largest democratic exercises in the world and vote for a new president and vice president.
With almost all the political parties and Indonesia’s politicos consolidating behind two pairs of candidates, the stage is set for a straight fight in one of the most important presidential elections in Indonesia’s history. In one corner, Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) chief patron and former head of the Special Forces Prabowo Subianto is running alongside seasoned National Mandate Party (PAN) leader Hatta Rajasa, who has served in several ministerial posts within outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s government, the recent one being Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs. In the other corner, phenomenally popular Jakarta Governor and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) member Joko Widodo will seek the presidency with former vice president Jusuf Kalla, an entrepreneur-turned-politician and respected former Golkar Party chairman who becomes the only person to have appeared on the ballot in all of Indonesia’s presidential elections since 2004.
The frenetic politicking which began with the release of the legislative election results and culminated with the registration of the last candidate on May 20 has resulted in somewhat bizarre political alliances. Take for example the National Awakening Party’s (PKB) wholehearted support for Joko as president, despite the historically cold relationship between the PKB and the PDI-P, especially during the presidency of PKB founder Abdurrahman Wahid when PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri was his vice president and eventual successor after Abdurrahman’s impeachment. Or Reformasi leading figure and PAN chief patron Amien Rais’ enthusiastic support (to the point of near-adoration) for Prabowo despite the many human rights violations he is accused of throughout his military career especially in the events of 1998. It seems the past few weeks in Indonesian politics are testament to the fundamental maxim that there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics, and only permanent interests for the acquisition of power ever matters.
As the dust settles and attention turns from the internal maneuvering to the real campaign, many have begun to weigh the strengths and weaknesses of both pairs of candidates. Upon closer scrutiny, there seems to be very little that distinguish both pairs. Joko and Prabowo are both Javanese men with substantial wealth, with Joko having earned his money from exporting ornate wooden furniture and Prabowo through his Nusantara Group of companies, besides having the financial support of his industrialist brother Hashim Djojohadikusumo of the Arsari Group. Both have scant experience in national government, with Joko’s track record only comprising governing the Central Jakarta city of Solo and recently the capital of Jakarta and Prabowo boasting of only his time in the high ranks of the Indonesian Army.
Furthermore, both pairs are bottom-heavy in the sense that both vice presidential candidates – besides being non-Javanese to appeal to their respective constituents – possess substantially more experience in national government than their presidential running mates. Hatta Rajasa, a Sumatran Malay from Palembang, has served in the government for thirteen years, dating back to Megawati’s presidency. Jusuf Kalla, a Makassar Bugisnese and former CEO of the NV Hadji Kalla conglomerate in eastern Indonesia, was Abdurrahman’s Trade and Industry Minister and Megawati’s Coordinating Minister for Social Welfare before becoming Indonesia’s first directly elected Vice President in 2004.
Both candidates also have strangely similar platforms that are heavy with rhetoric and unbearably light with substance. Playing to the nationalist sentiments of the ordinary Indonesian voter, both are promising to assert more sovereignty over natural resources, develop a more confident foreign policy and ensure food resilience by increasing agricultural output. The only major difference between their infrastructure policies seems to be the length of roads their administrations will build – Joko’s 2,000 kilometers versus Prabowo’s 3,000 kilometers.
Both are also promising massive investments in education, with Joko wishing to expand the student direct transfer programs he introduced in Solo and Jakarta to the entire country through the Indonesia Pintar (Smart Indonesia) program and Prabowo promising free education through high school for children of low-income labourers. The endemic problem of corruption, too, features prominently in both platforms, with both promising to endow greater powers on and increase the operating budget of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
Given all these similarities, what will enable the ordinary voter to distinguish both pairs of candidates? Will Indonesian voters actually be asked to choose between the political equivalents of Alice in Wonderland’s Tweedledum and Tweedledee? The truth, however, is that beyond similarities on paper, the tangible differences between a potential Joko administration and a potential Prabowo administration can be pretty stark. All one needs to see the striking contrast is to look at both candidates’ approaches to image management in their political campaigns.
Prabowo has had ambitions towards the presidency since the New Order era when he was married to then-President Soeharto’s daughter Titiek and had rapidly risen in the ranks of the Army. The elder son of Soeharto-era economist Prof. Soemitro Djojohadikusumo, he boasts of and makes no attempt to hide his distinguished elite lineage – a highly contentious documentary posted on Gerindra party YouTube account dates all the way back to Sultan Agung of the Mataram kingdom. To Prabowo, Indonesia’s greatness is as destined as his ascension to high position, leading him to craft his image to fit the narrative that both destinies are inseparable.
Prabowo believes that the kind of changes Indonesia needs to live up to its promise as a great country requires massive large-scale institutional transformations which can be realized only with a strong and decisive leader at the helm. To instil this message in the electorate, he spares no expense at equating himself audio-visually to Indonesia’s founding president Soekarno.
In the keynote campaign event for Gerindra in April’s legislative elections, Prabowo wore a black fez and a double-breasted white safari shirt, and animatedly delivered fiery speeches through 1950s-era steel microphones. As though the comparison with Soekarno was not enough, he relied on his military pedigree and descended into Jakarta’s iconic Gelora Bung Karno stadium in a helicopter, eventually entering the stadium in a Land Rover bearing the three stars of his Lieutenant-General rank and reviewing a parade of uniformed Gerindra members on the back of one of his many thoroughbred horses. To Prabowo, Soekarno was the epitome of an Indonesia that could hold its head up high in the world, and he is determined to emulate his example and provide that badly needed decisiveness.
In contrast to Prabowo’s grandiose candidacy, Joko fits the description of the accidental presidential candidate that he has been exuding throughout the campaign. Although it can be argued that beneath his amateurish demeanor lies a canny political operator with a knack for image management, one can see that deep down he has no intentions of shying away from his humble beginnings as one who grew up in the riverside slums of Solo. His underwhelming public speaking skills and easygoing demeanor do not work in his favor, but in this age of retail politics, his abilities to connect and interact in close proximity with the ordinary voter – which he does with seamless ease through his thick Javanese accent and constant stealth blusukan (site inspections) – resonate with an electorate tired of distant and dispassionate politicians.
Joko’s daily and personal interactions with ordinary folk provide us with powerful insights into his political thoughts. For Joko, massive transformations in policy and governance would be pointless if not accompanied by what he terms “revolusi mental” – a revolutionary mindset change within every single Indonesian.
If Prabowo focuses on the institutional aspects of governance in his campaign platform, Joko is adamantly zoomed in on the individual. To him, systemic changes are instrumental in tackling the perennial problem of corruption in a bloated and inefficient bureaucracy, but these changes cannot take place if ordinary Indonesians still enable corruption by giving bribes when procuring government services. At the heart of Indonesia should lie an educated and responsible population that will drive forward the socio-cultural changes necessary to transform Indonesia for the better, hence his emphasis on educating the poorest of the poor as a means of empowering them.
Ultimately, Indonesia is not just choosing for a new pair of leaders for the vast archipelago. The approximately 190 million voters will have the opportunity to chart a new path forward after ten years under President Yudhoyono. Both candidates’ slogans summarize their competing visions for the country: Prabowo believes Indonesia needs to “bangkit” (awaken) whereas Joko considers Indonesia to be inherently “hebat” (great). It will be a closely fought race and both sides will do their utmost to contest it with great ferocity. All that can be said at the moment is: may the most convincing man win.
Jason Salim is an intern for Jakarta Globe. He is currently studying history in international relations in the University of British Columbia, Canada
By Jason Salim on 06:47 pm Jun 10, 2014
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