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Yearender 2021: Jokowi consolidates power amid health crisis
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo attends a meeting with business associations and lobbying groups in the State Palace on Sept. 8. (Cabinet Secretariat/Muchlis Jr)
F
or President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, 2021 marks the year he seized the opportunity to tighten his grip on national politics after steering the country through the Delta-fueled second wave of the pandemic.
The second wave peaked in mid-July with more than 50,000 daily cases recorded, pushing the country’s healthcare system to the brink of collapse and leading to the enforcement of emergency public activity restrictions (PPKM Darurat), the country's strictest mobility curbs.
The public health crisis at the height of the second wave pushed down the President’s approval rating, with a survey conducted by pollster Indikator Politik Indonesia revealing that 59.3 percent of respondents expressed their approval of him in July, a drop from 64 percent in April.
Read also: Prolonged lockdown erodes Jokowi's popularity
The situation, however, largely improved following the implementation of multitiered restriction, which gives each region more flexibility in implementing mobility curbs based on certain pandemic indicators in their respective areas.
In late August, Jokowi welcomed the National Mandate Party (PAN) into the ruling coalition and announced that the capital relocation project to East Kalimantan — viewed by analysts as an ambitious attempt to leave a legacy as part of his second term — would resume after more than a year’s delay.
With the addition of PAN, the government coalition now controls 82 percent of the 575 seats in the House of Representatives and leaves the Democratic Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) as the only remaining opposition parties.
