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View Point: Jokowi'€™s first presidential order: New false teeth for '€˜Ibu'€™ Eet

Amid rising concern over the reported plan to block the inauguration of Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Jusuf Kalla as the country’s president and vice president on Oct

Kornelius Purba (The Jakarta Post)
Sun, October 12, 2014

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View Point: Jokowi'€™s first presidential order: New false teeth for '€˜Ibu'€™ Eet

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mid rising concern over the reported plan to block the inauguration of Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo and Jusuf Kalla as the country'€™s president and vice president on Oct. 20, Jokowi demonstrated his proficiency at '€œdining table'€ diplomacy on Friday evening. He hosted a two-hour dinner in a hotel in Central Jakarta with three top politicians.

 Just look at The Jakarta Post'€™s frontpage picture on Saturday:

President-elect Jokowi was firmly raising the hands of the speaker of the House of Representatives, Setya Novanto, and the speaker of the People'€™s Consultative Assembly, Zulkifli Hasan. The two politicians belong to the camp of Prabowo Subianto, who lost to Jokowi in the July 9 presidential election. Irman Gusman of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) was also present.

You may argue that the meeting means nothing because it was just a PR stunt. But please do not forget that the '€œdining table'€ approach and his eagerness to '€œlisten to the people'€ are among his strongest trademarks that helped to rocket his career to become the country'€™s seventh president within just three years.

The Friday dinner and the provision of free teeth for a housemaid were the combination of factors that helped me to believe that Jokowi will survive as the country'€™s leader, although he will have to '€œswim in rough seas'€.

In a meeting on Thursday in Cikini, Central Jakarta with a group of people who had volunteered for him during the presidential election, a middle-aged woman opened wide her nearly toothless mouth in front of Jokowi and begged him to buy her a set of false teeth.

The woman, who was employed as a part-time domestic worker, told Jokowi that with a monthly salary of Rp 500,000 (US$40) she will never be able to buy the vital mouth equipment on her own.

However, before she showed him her own problem, she first requested Jokowi provide a public bathing, washing and toilet facility (MCK) in her slum neighborhood. Then she followed up with the tooth issue.

'€œOn more request, Pak. This is about my teeth. I am teethless,'€ Eet said, as quoted by several online media. Being toothless, she said, she could not taste food well. Jokowi totally agreed with her.

Jokowi spontaneously promised her a new set of dentures. '€œTomorrow, come to my office. It will be directly checked,'€ said Jokowi.

'€œIn my view, little things like this must also become matters of principle for the government,'€ said the outgoing Jakarta governor.

Hopefully, Eet will have her new teeth by the time Jokowi is sworn into office in the next 10 days. It could become the first realization of one of Jokowi'€™s promises as the country'€™s seventh president.

Many Indonesians, and also the international community, are anxious about the survival of Jokowi'€™s government. His political opponents now fully control the legislature. He needs to realize that he cannot depend for much support on the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) because its chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri is surrounded by people who think God will punish those who oppose Megawati. Many of them are just sycophants and they will receive their karma.

I dare say there is no capable strategist within the party, not even her own daughter Puan Maharani. The absence of her late husband Taufiq Kiemas left a big hole that no one can fill. Only after his death did people realize how vital a role he played inside the party. Many people wrongly regarded Taufiq as a mere parasite on the daughter of the country'€™s first president, Sukarno.

It was PDI-P that nominated Jokowi and Kalla for the presidential race. The party won the April legislative election, but the victory means nearly nothing since Megawati stubbornly refused to be more flexible and tactical against rival political parties.

The allies and supporters of Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto have vowed to torpedo the government of Jokowi and Kalla. It is sad that among Prabowo'€™s die-hard supporters is Amien Rais, one of the icons of the nation'€™s struggle to force Soeharto out in May 1998. History may eventually remember the lecturer of the Gadjah Mada University (UGM) as a traitor to our commitment to the supremacy of civil society. I voted for him and his National Mandate Party (PAN) in two elections.

For me, former Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung was a true ideological son of Soeharto. The soft-spoken politician could clearly still not forgive Megawati for her failure to pick him as her deputy when Megawati replaced Abdurrahman '€œGus Dur'€ Wahid in 2001.

 Prabowo was a man who could not accept defeat. Judging from his background from childhood, he will not hesitate to spend the rest of his life seeking revenge against the people who publicly embarrassed him and hurt his ego.

Current Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie is a man who was always afraid that his business empire would be demolished unless it had strong political backing from the government. He is a business tycoon who never hesitated to use religious and race issues to attract the nation'€™s sympathy.

This is my perception of the four politicans. Hopefully, I am right, not wrong.

Jokowi will face severe opposition in the legislature, but we need to remember that after he became the governor of Jakarta in 2012, he was only backed up by a minority faction at the City Council. He reached out to the people with his blusukan (impromptu visits). The public will be his strongest supporters, as long as he succeeds in convincing them he is serving the nation, sincerely and smartly.

Let Kalla manage the other mechanisms to tame their political enemies. As long as they are still dirty, they will not be able to disrupt the government. The prisons are waiting for them.

The writer is senior managing editor at The Jakarta Post.

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