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ASIA PACIFIC | NYT NOW
A Child of the Slum Rises as President of
Indonesia
By JOE COCHRANE JULY 22, 2014
JAKARTA, Indonesia Joko Widodo, the governor of Jakarta whose
common touch has made him a political phenomenon, was declared the
winner of Indonesias presidential election on Tuesday, completing an
improbable ascent from child of the slums to leader of the worlds fourth-
most populous nation.
But the announcement, while widely expected, did not end a
simmering controversy. His opponent, Prabowo Subianto, a retired army
general, rejected the results as fraudulent and said he was withdrawing
from the race.
The General Elections Commission announced that Mr. Joko, with 53
percent of the vote, had beaten Mr. Prabowo, with 47 percent. Nearly 135
million Indonesians cast ballots in the emotionally charged July 9 election,
in which voters chose a new president for the first time in 10 years.
There was a huge police presence at the commissions offices in
Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, on Tuesday as the vote tabulations were
completed, amid rumors of violent street demonstrations by disappointed
supporters of Mr. Prabowo.
As the elections commission was finishing its count and preparing to
announce Mr. Joko as the winner, representatives of Mr. Prabowos
campaign staged a walkout at the commissions offices. Shortly afterward,
Mr. Prabowo read an impassioned statement to supporters at his
campaign headquarters, saying he had withdrawn his candidacy and
would reject the results.
There has been a massive, structured and systematic fraud, he said.
But on Tuesday night, his brother and chief adviser, Hashim
Djojohadikusumo, said Mr. Prabowo had not in fact withdrawn his
candidacy, but was instead demanding additional time for the elections
commission to investigate serious problems in both ballot casting and
vote tabulations.
Commission officials, however, rejected his campaigns allegations
and said a candidates withdrawal would have no bearing on the results.
Mr. Hashim said Mr. Prabowos campaign team had not yet decided
whether to appeal the election results to the Indonesian Constitutional
Court.
We want the K.P.U. to take a serious look at these irregularities, Mr.
Hashim said, referring to the elections commission by its Indonesian
abbreviation.
The Constitutional Court has the sole authority to order recounts or
new voting at the provincial level and below, and its decisions are binding.
The court has two weeks to issue any decision should there be an appeal.
But analysts said it was highly unlikely that any ruling would overturn the
final national result, given the eight-million-vote margin of Mr. Jokos
victory.
What amounted to declarations of victory by both camps hours after
the polls closed led to weeks of uncertainty as the commission tabulated
votes from more than 480,000 polling stations. Mr. Joko is to be sworn in
Oct. 20. He has pledged to bring more people-centric governance and
policies to Indonesia, which, despite being a member of the G-20 group of
major economies, has more than 100 million people living on $2 a day or
less.
The victory represents a striking rise for Mr. Joko, 53, who was born
and raised in a riverside slum area in the city of Surakarta, also known as
Solo, in Central Java Province. He grew up to be a carpenter and later a
furniture exporter before entering politics in 2005. He was twice elected
mayor of his hometown, then governor of Jakarta in 2012.
Mr. Joko, a thin, unassuming figure with what he has described as a
typical village face, will be Indonesias seventh president and the first not
to have emerged from the countrys political elite or to have been an army
general.
Mr. Prabowo, 62, was a son-in-law of Suharto, the authoritarian
president who was forced to resign in 1998 after 32 years in power amid
pro-democracy street demonstrations. Mr. Prabowo, a successful
businessman who comes from a prominent Javanese political family, has a
checkered military record, including allegations of human rights abuses as
a commander of Indonesias Special Forces and later as head of the armys
strategic reserve command. He was denied a visa to enter the United States
in 2000 and is believed to be on an unofficial blacklist.
Sitting barefoot inside a small rented house in central Jakarta a few
days before Tuesdays announcement, Mr. Joko said in an interview that
Indonesias continuing democratic transition had broken the grip of the
entrenched political elite on the government. Of crucial importance to this,
he said, was the introduction of direct elections from president all the way
down to town mayor a decade ago, as part of a national decentralization
policy that replaced Suhartos centralized system of governance.
Mr. Joko will lead a country that has successfully consolidated its
democracy and enjoyed strong economic growth under the departing
president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has served two five-year
terms. Indonesia has had one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia in
recent years, along with China and India. But that same economy, which
achieved annual growth rates of more than 6 percent from 2010 to 2012,
mostly thanks to the countrys abundant natural resources and robust
domestic consumption, is facing several serious challenges.
They include a trade deficit, a national fuel subsidy that sucks tens of
billions of dollars each year from the state budget, inadequate
infrastructure, corruption, poverty and a growing disparity between the
countrys rich and poor.
During the bruising presidential campaign, Mr. Prabowo
characterized Mr. Joko as an unsophisticated, small-town politician who
lacked the ability to lead a large nation. But Mr. Joko noted that he would
be the only president in Indonesian history to take office with prior
experience in running a government.
Its about management, Mr. Joko said. How to plan, how to
organize, how to decide actions. In my opinion, the most important thing
in governance is management control.
Correction: July 22, 2014
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article referred
incorrectly to Central Java. It is a province of Indonesia, not a state.
A version of this article appears in print on July 23, 2014, on page A4 of the New York edition with
the headline: A Child of the Slum Rises as President of Indonesia.
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