President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s reelection bid received a chorus of endorsement less than a month before voting day in April, with thousands of Indonesian business players declaring support for Jokowi and his running mate Ma’ruf Amin in the 2019 election.

Individual business players and workers grouped under volunteer organization KerJo (Pro-Jokowi Business Players and Workers) made the declaration during an event at Istora Senayan in South Jakarta on Thursday.

Jokowi and his aides, including his national campaign team chairman Erick Thohir, Golkar Party chairman and Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) senior member Pramono Anung, also attended the declaration event.

Among the prominent business players are Hariyadi Sukamdani, Sofjan Wanandi, Rosan Roeslani, Arifin Panigoro and Shinta Kamdani, who said they believed Jokowi should continue his second term to maintain political stability and continuity of his economic policies for the next five years.

The figures also highlighted that they supported Jokowi because he was a democratic leader who was able to develop a competitive business climate and issue strategic policies for the growth of the nation’s economy.

“Kerjo is a Javanese word meaning kerja [work] and with such spirit we will continue to work to build a better Indonesia under the leadership of Pak Jokowi,” said Hariyadi, KerJo coordinator and the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) chairman.

He said the declaration not only meant that Jokowi received the support from business players, but also the employees working in their companies, who were also represented at the event by the leaders of labor unions across the country.

Jokowi, who is pitted against rival Prabowo Subianto and running mate Sandiaga Uno in the 2019 election, was given a white safety helmet emblazoned with the word “KerJo” in a symbolic ceremony after the declaration.

Sofjan, a businessman and KerJo advisor, said the declaration was “perhaps the first time that business players had taken an official stance”.

“What we [business players] need the most in the next five years is political stability, meaning that we can predict what will happen, so that we will be confident in making investments,” Sofjan told reporters on Thursday.

Rosan, who is also the chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), said they were also satisfied with the performance of Jokowi’s administration in the economic sector, such as in creating a favorable investment climate and issuing policies that supported economic growth.

Among the points that Jokowi highlighted in his speech was the need to lower corporate income tax, a subject that he said he had discussed before with Apindo and Kadin. However, the plan is not yet on the near horizon.
“We want our tax not to burden business players, but instead to push them to make investments,” Jokowi said, “I was also a businessman, I understand [..] but this country is big and it’s not possible to handle and settle all problems at the same time.”

At a separate event on Thursday evening, around 1,000 business players also declared their support for Prabowo and Sandiaga, saying that they believed the pair could help them to improve their businesses and address unemployment in the country.

“We have great expectations for Pak Prabowo and Sandiaga to lead this country and navigate the nation toward justice, prosperity and to make our business able to improve and grow,” said Erwin Aksa, a businessman and Golkar Party member who led the declaration.

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