J

akarta Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, undoubtedly far and away the most popular potential candidate for next year'€™s presidential election, faces a major stumbling block as the one political party that should be supporting his nomination may now be backing away.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) this past week has been floating the idea of Jokowi instead becoming running mate to party chair Megawati Soekarnoputri. The former president apparently still harbors the ambition to try her luck again after thrice losing in her bids in 1999, 2004 and 2009. She assumed the presidency only after the People'€™s Consultative Assembly (MPR) impeached then president Abdurrahman '€œGus Dur'€ Wahid in 2001 and named her, as then vice president, the new president.

But whether the Megawati-Jokowi ticket will go down well with voters is something we will learn in the coming weeks as the public responds to the proposal.

PDI-P deputy secretary-general Hasto Kristianto said the party'€™s own internal surveys suggested there was a strong desire among the rank-and-file to see Megawati running the country again, believing that she would make a better president than the untested Jokowi.

Megawati, in whose hands the PDI-P nomination rests, has repeatedly said she would not be rushed into any decision even as every survey has indicated Jokowi'€™s growing popularity since his name began to be touted as a possible 2014 presidential candidate.

All surveys have shown that PDI-P may be moving back to the top next year for the first time since 1999 by winning the legislative election, and even returning to government for the first time since 2004 by winning the presidential election if it puts up Jokowi as its candidate.

The prospects of PDI-P ending its role as an opposition party must be so intoxicating that Megawati and other party leaders are already looking at their options. Megawati, whom surveys say has little chance of winning the presidential race, is entertaining the idea of using Jokowi'€™s popularity to deliver her back into the presidential palace.

The Megawati-Jokowi ticket is being touted to test the waters.

But the question that the PDI-P needs to ask is not only whether its supporters prefer Megawati over Jokowi but whether the nation would also rather have her than him. She may not like the answer.

Jokowi'€™s popularity so transcends party lines that he no longer belongs exclusively to the PDI-P. Most independent surveys show that some of Jokowi'€™s support will be coming from people who would otherwise not vote for PDI-P.

An opinion poll by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Indonesia released this month shows that Jokowi has the support of nearly 35 percent of voters. His nearest rival, Prabowo Subianto from the Great Indo-
nesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, received 11 percent while Megawati came a distant sixth with just over 3 percent.

The CSIS survey showed that two-thirds of PDI-P supporters said they would give their vote to Jokowi. He would also get the vote of 43 percent of Democratic Party (PD) supporters, 23 percent of Golkar Party supporters and 21 percent of Gerindra supporters. In other words, many supporters of rival parties that are expected to do well in the April legislative election could be expected to give their votes to Jokowi come the July presidential election.

How differently would they vote if Jokowi was nominated as vice president to Megawati?

A Megawati-Jokowi ticket has so far not been contemplated and therefore has been off the political radar. None of the opinion polls have asked about Jokowi running as vice presidential candidate to Megawati, or anyone else for that matter.

Other presidential hopefuls, including Aburizal Bakrie from Golkar, are also eyeing Jokowi as a possible running mate just to ride on his popularity. Megawati is simply one more of them, although perhaps rightly she has first claim over Jokowi since he is a registered member of her party.

But would a Megawati-Jokowi ticket be acceptable to the nation?

It also raises other questions, such as whether Jokowi would accept playing second fiddle to his party boss, or would he jump ship and run on another party'€™s ticket?

Indonesians who feel strongly about Jokowi'€™s nomination as president may want to sing the popular old folk song from Maluku, the lyric of which goes: Nona manis siapa yang punya? ('€¦) Yang punya kita semua (The sweet young lady, to whom does she belong? ('€¦) She belongs to all of us). Substitute Jokowi for '€œthe sweet young lady'€ and they will send their message loud and clear to Megawati.