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Imagining Jakarta Governor Anies as our next president
The governor’s most phenomenal achievement in the last five years has been his ability to prevent the recurrence of violent street demonstrations that often occurred during Ahok’s term.
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President Joko "Jokowi” Widodo (center) pours water brought by Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan (right), as East Kalimantan Governor Isran Noor (third left) looks on, during a Kendi Nusantara ritual at the site for Indonesia's new capital city Nusantara in Sepaku district, North Penajam Paser, East Kalimantan, on March 14. (Courtesy of Presidential Secretariat Press Bureau /Muchlis Jr. )
“Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the Republic of Indonesia Anies Baswedan,” a Presidential Palace officer announces when the newly elected leader of Indonesia enters the State Palace to swear in his new Cabinet members in October 2024, including a minister known for his links to “antipluralism” movements.
This will be the moment of truth for Anies because he was inaugurated as the education minister in 2014 and then Jakarta governor in 2017 by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. Anies was dismissed from the Cabinet in July 2016, reportedly because he failed to meet the President’s expectations.
On the day President Anies inducts his Cabinet members, thousands of his supporters, some of them regarded as “radical and intolerant”, hysterically chant “The President of indigenous Indonesians” outside the Presidential Palace compound.
The above scene will happen when the outgoing Jakarta governor realizes his ambition to be the country’s eighth president, perhaps after defeating either Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto, or Ganjar Pranowo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
I am pretty sure you will laugh or get mad after reading the opening paragraphs. But please do not swallow your own words if you say “impossible”. The three politicians have consistently topped the opinion surveys in the past few years.
I believe Anies, who just turned 53, is a moderate and pluralist Muslim by nature and remains so until now, but many regard him as feeling too comfortable to surround himself with those who are against his fundamental principles. He looks reluctant to leave his comfort zone to reach out to a much wider audience because it would take Herculean efforts to change the audience’s perception of him.
In his first speech as Jakarta governor in October 2017, Anies sparked controversy when he, an Indonesian of Arab descent, vowed to defend pribumi (indigenous) Indonesians against the economic domination of Chinese-Indonesians.
