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ince taking the helm several months ago, it is interesting to see what Jakarta'€™s Governor, Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, has done toward fulfilling his campaign promises. Some actions have already kicked in, and some are clearly envisioned. Interestingly, the pattern of his policies is attributed to social democracy.

To look at a few: he is going to nationalize Palyja and Aetra (a foreign-based city water service operator) through buying their stock; he is going to regain control of the privately run Jakarta Fair; he has launched the Jakarta Health Card (JKS) scheme for the impoverished, and he has doled out Smart Cards for pupils from low-income families. Here, we can see the social democratic pattern: nationalization/de-privatization and helping the poor.

Social democracy is the lenient variant of socialism/communism, because social democrats only assume power through democratic elections rather than revolution. They promote social welfare, but still adopt some elements of capitalism in the economy. In contrast, capitalism emphasizes small government, privatization, a free market and individualism.

Jokowi'€™s nationalization is definitely justified. What the private sector has done, in dealing with the Jakarta city administration, defies logic and, worse, incurs public losses.

In managing public services, the private sector always outsmarts the state. City water operators secure high profits during operation by overcharging customers, but they miss the target of coverage and water losses. And when their contracts end in 2022, the city administration will owe the private operators Rp18.2
trillion (US$1.82 million).

For years, the Jakarta Fair management has not shared dividends with the city government on the pretext of shareholders'€™ decisions.

At last this year, the management will pay a dividend to the city administration based on a questionable level of profit, despite the huge financial success of the event. And ridiculously, the city administration must pay Rp 4 billion for renting the space used for the Jakarta Fair. Thanks to his background, Jokowi is well-versed in business. He can easily dive into and comprehend the details to see whether the contracts with the private sector are good deals or not.

And in helping low-income families with two basic needs, education and health, Jokowi honed these skills in Surakarta while serving as mayor for seven years.

His skills included favoring traditional markets and rearranging the city'€™s street vendors. His uphill tasks in Jakarta will be to relocate squatters from densely populated areas to low-cost apartments. But looking at his track record, energy and enthusiasm, he will most likely be successful.

We need this kind of leadership; not only does it make sense and meet our needs, but this is also what our Constitution inspires. Article 33 on economy clearly declares that '€œproduction sectors that are vital to the state and that affect the livelihoods of a considerable part of the population are to be controlled by the state'€. And Article 34 on social welfare points out that '€œimpoverished persons and abandoned children are to be taken care of by the state'€. So, the DNA of our nation is social democracy.

Jokowi is a promising leader. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) will likely promote him to a higher level, and he deserves this. Management pundit Peter Drucker once said that there was no such thing as an underdeveloped country, only an undermanaged one.

Indonesia has been so undermanaged that we voluntarily share our profitable natural resources to foreign-based companies.

Hopefully, PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri and the party will feel remorseful about this and allow Jokowi to run for the presidency in 2014 and keep on bearing the flag of social democracy.

Erwin Wirawan
Bogor, West Java