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[COMMENTARY] It’s a family affair: Local elections becoming bounty for political families
The simultaneous regional elections on Dec. 9 once again gave us proof that being part of a powerful political family can get you far in politics.
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![[COMMENTARY] It’s a family affair: Local elections becoming bounty for political families](https://img.jakpost.net/c/2020/12/09/2020_12_09_108680_1607519380._large.jpg)
Local poll administrators (KPPS) in Banjarsari, Surakarta, Central Java wear orange uniforms with attached writing “not Corruption Eradication Committee [KPK] prisoners”. The effort is made to commemorate the International Anticorruption Day, which happened to fall also on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020. (JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
F
or every Barack Obama, there’s always a Kennedy, a Bush or a Trump waiting in the wings. For every self-made politician, there will always be more political scions ready to run for office and win, because in a crowded political field where everyone could run for office, it certainly helps if you have a last name that is familiar to millions.
The simultaneous regional elections on Dec. 9 once again gave us proof that being part of a powerful political family can get you far in politics.
In Surakarta, the eldest son of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, was declared the winner of the city’s mayoral election after scoring a landslide win over his rival Bagyo Wahyono. In Medan, North Sumatra, one member of the President’s extended family, his son-in-law Bobby Nasution, is expected to win a local election there, beating the incumbent Akhyar Nasution.
In South Tangerang, one of Jakarta’s most affluent suburbs, in a mayoral election fight between three of the most powerful political families in the country, analysts have attributed the victory secured by former deputy mayor Benyamin Davnie to the fact that he ran alongside one member of Banten’s most powerful political dynasty, the family of former governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah.
In an election battle that involved the offspring of Vice President Ma’ruf Amin and a scion of the Djojohadikusumo family, it certainly helps that Benyamin ran alongside the nephew of Ratu Atut, Pilar Saga Ichsan, whose command of a vast patronage network in the province has proved to be insurmountable to challenge.
In the East Java city of Banyuwangi, a quick count result indicated that the wife of outgoing regent Abdullah Azwar Anas, Ipuk Fiestiandani could win the local election, outperforming her husband’s former deputy Yusuf Widyatmoko, who was fired by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) for deciding to run in the election.
You could certainly argue that some of the aforementioned examples are anecdotal and that the bulk of candidates who ran in Wednesday’s local elections are your normal garden variety politicians with no ties to the moneyed political class.
