Joko Appeals to Nation’s Early Struggles

Joko Appeals to Nation’s Early Struggles

By Fana F.S. Putra, Erwin Sihombing & Markus Junianto Sihaloho on 08:58 am Mar 17, 2014

Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo waves to supporters during an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) campaign rally in Jakarta on March 16, 2014. (EPA Photo/Adi Weda); Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo, center, who is running for president as the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) candidate, smiles as he speaks to journalists during a legislative campaign tour in Jakarta on March 16, 2014. (AFP Photo/Adek Berry)

Jakarta. Governor Joko Widodo, who was announced on Friday as the presidential candidate for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, kicked off his role as a campaign leader for the party on Sunday as buildup to the April 9 legislative election began.

Along with party officials and his supporters, Joko on Sunday headed to the National Awakening Museum in Central Jakarta, a move that he said highlighted the beginning of the modern movement in Indonesia.

“It is here that the awakening of our nation began. We, too, hope that from the rise of a new Indonesia, a greater Indonesia will also start,” Joko said prior to entering the museum.

Joko also visited the Youth Pledge Museum as part of the campaign, saying the museum was an important witness to the spirit of Indonesia’s youth and that it was time for Indonesia to be led by those of the younger generation.

“This is where the unity of Indonesia was established and today, an Indonesian leadership from the younger generation will also start,” he said.

Hasto Kristiyanto, a PDI-P deputy secretary general, said the visit to the Youth Pledge Museum was to mark the future of Indonesia in the hands of its youth through Joko’s leadership.

“Megawati Soekarnoputri [the PDI-P chairwoman] has declared Joko as the party’s presidential candidate, a candidate who promotes the spirit of the youth to strengthen the country,” he said.

After months of speculation surrounding the question of whether the PDI-P would nominate Joko or Megawati, the chairwoman’s announcement on Friday sparked euphoria among the public, many of whom expressed support for the move, while others were less than convinced.

Andrinof Chaniago, a public policy analyst at the University of Indonesia, warned that Joko’s time in Jakarta City Hall had indicated that he might have a hard time pushing through his programs.

He said that some of the governor’s biggest programs in Jakarta had been stalled because of an obdurate central government bureaucracy, including traffic alleviation efforts that were thwarted by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s cheap car policy.

“Joko’s rhythm has sometimes not been in sync with that of the Public Works Ministry, for instance,” Andrinof said.

He also said that despite having accepted his nomination, Joko would will need to focus on his duties as governor.

“He doesn’t need to campaign yet. He is still in fully charge of Jakarta because the presidential elections are still a long way off” on July 9, he said.

“What is needed now is a statement that he is ready to run as president.”

Meanwhile, a team named the New Jakarta Advocacy Team, which supported Joko and his deputy, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, in their gubernatorial campaign in 2012, on Sunday said they would file a lawsuit against Joko for accepting the presidential nomination.

The group demanded that Joko remain in his post until the end of his term in 2017.

New Jakarta Advocacy Team coordinator Habiburokhman said the team had supported Joko in becoming the governor, and it expected him to repay that support by seeing out his terms and promises.

“We are consistent in our opinion that Joko is capable of solving the issues in Jakarta if given enough time to lead the city, which is five years,” he said, as quoted by Tribunnews.com.

“We have documented many of the promises Joko made during his campaign as a candidate through the media, which he has yet to fulfill as of today.”

Habiburokhman, who is also the head of the Great Indonesia Movement Party’s (Gerindra) advocacy unit, said Joko was legally bound to his promises because they were the basis for his winning in 2012.

During his party’s campaign on Sunday, Joko played down the threat. “It was the same, back in Solo [where he was previously mayor]. I experienced the same thing. I’m used to being insulted and attacked, I’m used to it,” he said.

Joko also responded to Gerindra founder and presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, who during his own party’s campaign on the same day encouraged the public not to vote for a “puppet presidential candidate.” Polls have shown that if Joko wasn’t running, Prabowo was the clear favorite to win the election.

“I don’t want to comment on things that would complicate the situation. Let’s practice good manners in politics,” Joko said.

“If you want to offer your support, then do. But if not, I think that’s fine, too.”

 

Joko Joining Race Boosts PDI-P

By Berni Moestafa on 09:39 am Mar 17, 2014

Jakarta. Indonesia’s biggest opposition party kicked off its campaign for the country’s parliamentary elections with a head start after nominating Jakarta’s popular governor for president.

Twelve parties will vie in an April election for spots in the 560-seat parliament where President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party is now the biggest single entity with 26 percent of seats. The coming ballot may see that advantage eroded as the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, and its presidential candidate Joko Widodo lead in opinion polls.

“There will be an increase in votes for PDI-P,” Yose Rizal, founder of politicawave.com, which tracks political discourse on the Internet, said March 14. “With the nomination of Jokowi, who’s a favorite, fewer people will choose to abstain from voting,” he said, referring to Joko by his nickname.

The progress of the campaign may indicate how much Joko will boost PDI-P’s fortunes in both the vote next month and the July presidential ballot, with news of his candidacy on March 14 spurring a stock rally on expectations he will reform the government of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. With little to separate the major parties on policy, both elections may be fought largely on personality, with PDI-P candidates already featuring Joko’s image on their campaign paraphernalia.

“I haven’t decided yet whether I will vote in the legislative election,” said Sinta Mariana, a 36-year-old administration worker at a property company in Jakarta. Still, with Joko running, “I will definitely vote for him and not abstain.”

Personality card

Voters’ apathy toward political parties in the world’s third-biggest democracy makes them less open to hearing about their platforms and programs, according to Yunarto Wijaya, executive director of political consultancy Charta Politika Indonesia.

“Parties are being realistic by playing the personality card at the presidential or legislative candidate level,” Wijaya said by phone. “This is what makes declaring Jokowi very crucial in deciding the winner of even the legislative election. The battle is indeed a battle of the personalities.”

Parties must win at least 20 percent of parliamentary seats or 25 percent of the vote to nominate a presidential candidate. The outcome of the election next month may lead some parties to form a coalition. PDI-P’s closest challenger is Golkar, the country’s second-largest political party whose tycoon chairman Aburizal Bakrie rates himself the presidential favorite.

A survey by Saiful Mujani Research & Consulting in February shows PDI-P on 16 percent, followed by Golkar with 15 percent and the Democrats with 10 percent. Nearly 18 percent of the 1,520 respondents were undecided, and are voters PDI-P may seek to woo with Joko’s nomination.

Three weeks

Yesterday marked the start of the three-week campaign with the parliamentary vote scheduled for April 9. The results will be announced May 7-9, according to the timeline released by the election commission on its website.

Heading south out of Jakarta into the world’s most populated island of Java, blue and white flags from the Democratic party rise out of the trees along the highway. Down the congested lanes in the Sukabumi area of western Java, in between rice paddies and banana trees, the red flags of PDI-P become more common.

Parties declared their support in a March 15 ceremony for a peaceful campaign, followed by a parade of more than a dozen floats through Jakarta’s streets with bands and costume-wearing supporters, singing and calling on onlookers to vote. A man wearing a giant yellow Eagle head yelled his support for the Gerindra party’s Prabowo Subianto while singers on a National Mandate Party float wore white wigs, denoting support for its white-haired chairman Hatta Rajasa.

Bull market

The Jakarta Composite index entered a bull market March 14, rising 3.2 percent in the biggest one-day rally in nearly six months. Joko has made infrastructure development and streamlining tax collection centerpieces of his governance, boosting his support in the business community.

The former mayor of the Central Java town of Solo became Jakarta Governor in 2012 on the promise to rid the capital of chronic flooding and traffic jams. Joko said on Jan. 21 that he is using the administration’s cash for a free health plan for more than 3 million people, aimed at the capital’s poor.

“PDI-P is well known to be the party of the peasants,” Deputy Secretary General Hasto Kristianto said March 5. PDI-P, which seeks to win 27 percent of the vote, will use popular names such as Joko and Banten Deputy Governor Rano Karno, a former artist, as “public influencers” during the campaign, he said.

Red banners with the trademark color of PDI-P and the words “Jokowi for President 2014” adorned an office in Solo earlier this month, before his nomination was announced.

Wise choice

In 2009 PDI-P finished third with 14 percent of the vote, down from a record 34 percent in 1999 when the end of Suharto’s three-decade rule boosted support for the party led by Megawati Soekarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia’s founding father Soekarno.

Megawati made a wise choice to have Joko named as the PDI-P’s presidential candidate, according to Leonard Sebastian, associate professor and coordinator of the Indonesia program at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

“I believe her calculation would be based on the fact that the PDI-P now will go into the election with a clear presidential candidate and one who obviously will be able to garner huge support from the electorate,” he said. “This should translate into huge gains for the PDI-P in the general elections.”

Performance, promises

Golkar targets 25 percent of the vote, Airlangga Hartarto, a member of the party’s central executive council, said March 14. With Yudhoyono prevented by law from running for a third term, Golkar seeks to lure Democrat members who voted for the party in 2009 because of the president’s personal popularity, he said.

Yudhoyono will be on leave today and tomorrow to campaign for the Democrats, Julian Aldrin Pasha, a presidential spokesman, said March 12. Yudhoyono took the helm of his party in March last year after a series of corruption cases involving senior party members dented its popularity.

The party’s previous chairman, Anas Urbaningrum, resigned after becoming at least the third senior party official linked to corruption allegations in less than two years. After winning 21 percent of the vote in 2009, the Democrats are now targeting 15 percent, Marzuki Alie, a party member and speaker of the House of Representatives, said March 7.

“Democrats are the incumbents and as the ruling party the public is looking at its performance, not promises,” Alie said.