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View all search resultsErdogan and Jokowi
The most difficult challenge for Erdogan is to restore the country's chaotic economy as a consequence of his erratic policies
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T
he slim victory of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with 52.14 percent of the vote against his long-standing rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu’s 47.86 percent in the May 21 election runoff demonstrates how polarized Turkey now is, regardless of Erdogan's reconciliatory speech.
Kilicdaroglu has been Erdogan's strongest rival since 2010 and is the antithesis of the grandstanding, powerful president. The stiff competition between the Islamist and the so-called nationalist and secular camps will therefore continue to linger in Turkish politics.
To a certain extent, Indonesia is experiencing a similar divide as a result of two presidential elections in 2014 and 2019, which saw Joko "Jokowi" Widodo triumph over Prabowo Subianto. Both Indonesia and Turkey, the world’s prominent majority Muslim nations, look like two sides of the same coin in their choice of a populist leader who exudes ambitions to consolidate power.
In Indonesia, President Jokowi coopted the opposition by offering them strategic posts in the Cabinet and other state agencies in the name of national unity. This maneuver has left only two minority parties, the secular Democratic Party and the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), in the opposition, rendering the checks and balances mechanism ineffective.
In Turkey, Erdogan has acted as an authoritarian leader who would not hesitate to silence the opposition and crack down on them, as happened after the failed coup attempt in 2016. Erdogan won the 2018 election and amended the Constitution, allowing him to play a greater role than in the past.
Many Indonesians adore Erdogan and view him as a true model of an Islamic leader. In Aceh, the only Indonesian province that enforces sharia law, people held a special thanksgiving prayer in the capital city of Banda Aceh on Monday to celebrate Erdogan’s victory. In the last two presidential elections, Aceh voted for Prabowo.
The Turkish leader will always be remembered in Aceh for his contribution to the people after the world’s worst tsunami devastated the province in December 2004, claiming more than 200,000 lives. He sent 15,000 tonnes of food, clothing and medicines and built 1,000 houses for the Acehnese.
