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Indonesia leads region in democratic standards
Yet despite worrying concerns, Indonesia’s democracy sparkles in a region whose democratic standards are not top notch, at least for a good number of ASEAN member nations.
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President Joko Widodo gave speech at World Leaders Summit on Forest and Land Use, held in Glasgow, Scotland on Tuesday, November 2 2021. (President Secretariat/BPMI Setpres/Lukas)
There are two ways to look at President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration.
The first is what I would call the utilitarian’s approach that sees President Jokowi as a visionary statesman able to get things done, focused on big transformational achievements.
In other words, this is what I call the Singaporean way embraced by Kishore Mahbubani, who recently praised President Jokowi for his bold undertakings aimed at turning Indonesia into a developed nation.
Then there is another view of President Jokowi, a view much more critical of the president seen as a cynic political operator capable of getting things done at the expense of principles and values he had often espoused.
After all, there might be some reasons why Indonesia has been downgraded in terms of its democratic credentials, not only in the Economist’s Democracy Index 2020 but also the more recent Global State of Democracy in Asia and the Pacific 2021 published by International IDEA.
If Indonesia and the president of the country are often compared to India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as two nations steadily reforming and pushing for industrialization and pro market reforms, in this particular case the comparison between India and Indonesia is certainly not that positive.
The reason is simple: According to International IDEA’s report, both countries are showing steady progress, not in strengthening their democratic practices but rather the opposite, in deteriorating and weakening them.
