Indonesia’s main opposition PDI-P party named Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo as its presidential candidate on Friday, the man widely seen as a shoo-in to be next leader of the world’s third-largest democracy.
By choosing him, former president and party chief Megawati Sukarnoputri has also likely given a significant boost to her Indonesian Democratic Party’s (PDI-P) chances in the April 9 parliamentary election. The presidential election is on July 9.
She has kept the country on tenterhooks for weeks over whether she would put aside her own ambitions to return to the presidential palace or back the governor, popularly known as Jokowi.
Photo: AFP
“I got a mandate from the chair of PDI-P Ibu Megawati to become the presidential candidate for the party. In the name of God I’m ready to carry it out,” Joko said before kissing the red and white national flag.
Two days earlier, he had accompanied Megawati to pray at the grave of her father, Sukarno, the country’s first president in an event taken by many as a sign that Joko had clinched the nomination.
Signaling the Sukarno family hold over the PDI-P party, the announcement of Joko candidacy was made by Megawati’s daughter.
The nomination comes with huge expectations that he might finally be the leader who can fix Southeast Asia’s biggest economy which has repeatedly fallen short of its promise in the face of rampant graft, confusing policy and weak leadership.
“This is excellent news ... I’m very hopeful about business sentiment going forward because this also means PDI-P will be very big in parliament and that’s going to be a stabilizing factor,” said Jakob Friis Sorensen, head of the European Business Chamber of Commerce in Jakarta.
The main Jakarta stock index rose more than 3 percent after the announcement.
“’Jokowi’s’ nomination will be a big boost to confidence and markets. His achievement in Solo [a city where he was previously mayor] speaks for itself, where he improved services and revenue. He is seen as pragmatic and clean,” said Hak Bin Chua, economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Singapore.
Opinion polls already predict that the party is likely to win the most seats in April’s general election. Parties need to win 20 percent of the seats in parliament or 25 percent of the national vote to be allowed to nominate a candidate in the presidential election three months later.
In just over a year as governor of the Indonesian capital, Joko has won widespread national popularity for his straightforward style. Though his appeal cuts across social classes, he has won particularly strong following among the poor and fast-emerging middle class.
In what would be Indonesia’s third direct presidential election, Joko represents a new generation of hands-on leaders in the world’s largest Muslim population.
He has a huge lead in polls over more old-style rivals such as former general Prabowo Subianto and tycoon Aburizal Bakrie in the race to the presidential palace.
He swept to national prominence after winning the Jakarta gubernatorial election in late 2012.
His popularity has since skyrocketed, with almost daily media coverage of his blusukan or spontaneous trips to the city’s low-income neighborhoods.
The slightly built Joko, 52, grew up in a riverbank slum in the central Javanese town of Surakarta, also known as Solo, and went on to own a small furniture business before becoming mayor of his city.
He has struck a chord with the average Indonesian voter. A victory for the rags-to-riches governor would mark a significant departure from the political norm in Indonesia, which has only seen the rule of members of the military and established political elite.
Indonesia spent its first half a century of independence under autocratic rule that finally came to an end amid social and financial chaos in 1998.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in