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This week's regional polls are a referendum on Jokowi. The outcome may surprise him
For decades, it has been part of Indonesia’s political tradition that former presidents have mostly gone off into the sunset, retiring from politics completely.
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Former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (center), alongside Central Java gubernatorial candidate pair Ahmad Luthfi (right) and Taj Yasin (left), distributes T-shirts during a campaign parade on Jl. Tegal-Purwokerto, Central Java, on Nov. 16, 2024. (Antara/Oky Lukmansyah)
T
he name of former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is not on any ballot in this week’s nationwide regional head elections, yet if there is one person who stands to gain, or to lose, the most from the outcome of the votes, it is him.
For decades, it has been part of Indonesia’s political tradition that former presidents have mostly gone off into the sunset, retiring from politics completely.
As for those who chose to remain active in politics, figures like Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his predecessor Megawati Soekarnoputri, they have limited themselves to handling the business of running their respective political parties.
Jokowi is a unique figure in that he will be the first former leader without a political party of his own, yet as soon as his left office late last month he began testing the limits of what a former president can do.
Jokowi certainly thinks that he has what it takes to be a consequential figure in Indonesian politics, even after he no longer has the trappings of presidential office.
When he stepped down from power last month, his approval rating stood at 81 percent, which is almost unheard of for any president who is about to wrap up a second term.
The outcome of this year’s presidential and legislative elections further burnished his credentials as the consummate kingmaker who sits at the apex of Indonesian politics, someone who managed to ruthlessly orchestrate the elevation of his defense minister Prabowo Subianto to become the country’s next president and in the process promoting his son Gibran Rakabuming Raka to become vice president.
