Indonesia 2024 election: President Jokowi criticized for backing Prabowo | EUROtoday

But now, constitutionally barred from searching for a 3rd time period, Widodo — extensively often known as Jokowi — seems reluctant to let go of his sway over Indonesia’s future, say political scientists, watchdog teams and a rising variety of the president’s former allies and supporters.

Critics say Widodo has been exerting an excessive amount of affect forward of the Feb. 14 election to exchange him, making an attempt to swing the competition for Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, who has develop into a detailed ally. They accuse Widodo of engineering a courtroom resolution that cleared the way in which for his son to run because the vice-presidential candidate with Prabowo. And they are saying Widodo has been campaigning for Prabowo, though presidents in Indonesia should not legally allowed to marketing campaign.

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Moreover, village officers have reported that they’re being pressured to assist Prabowo in alternate for assets from the Widodo administration, based on the election watchdog group Perludem. The marketing campaign groups of the 2 different presidential candidates — former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo and former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan — say their volunteers and supporters have been harassed by safety forces and stopped from conducting marketing campaign actions. The army and the police have rejected these accusations.

“The situation is indeed unfair,” candidate Ganjar mentioned in an interview. “We’re prepared for it to continue being unfair.”

Rawanda Wandy Tuturoong, who was tapped by the president’s workplace to answer questions and is deputy to the chief of employees, mentioned Widodo “wants his legacy to be continued.” Widodo is counting on “his strengths, his capital” to attain this and has not damaged any legal guidelines, Tuturoong mentioned.

Widodo’s defenders say he must be allowed to go to nice lengths to defend his legacy, which incorporates efforts to ascertain an electric-vehicle manufacturing provide chain in Indonesia and an bold multibillion-dollar plan to construct a brand new capital metropolis to exchange Jakarta.

“Ten years of [Widodo] has been awesome,” mentioned Budi Arie Setiadi, head of Projo, a 7 million-strong group of pro-Widodo volunteers now backing Prabowo. “It must be continued.”

Opinion polls present Prabowo, a former basic with a historical past of alleged human rights abuses, main the opposite candidates by 20 factors, although he’s not assured to safe the 51 p.c of the vote he must keep away from a runoff. Widodo — who has an approval score as excessive 80 p.c — will play a deciding function, analysts say. The president has elevated public appearances with Prabowo forward of the vote and just lately asserted, with Prabowo at his facet, that presidents have the fitting to marketing campaign on behalf of others, prompting complaints to Indonesia’s electoral oversight board.

His embrace of Prabowo has divided Indonesia’s political elite. It has additionally ignited fears that democracy might be in danger in considered one of Asia’s few remaining democratic vibrant spots.

“What we’re seeing are pretty brazen attacks to democratic norms and institutions,” mentioned Made Supriatma, a visiting fellow on the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. He mentioned he believes this election is shaping as much as be Indonesia’s most unfair because the toppling of dictator Suharto in 1998. Usman Hamid, the pinnacle of Amnesty International Indonesia, agreed, as did Goenawan Mohamad, founding father of the investigative information journal Tempo and considered one of Indonesia’s most distinguished public intellectuals.

Mohamad supported Widodo in 2014 and 2019, and mentioned he believed till just lately that Widodo was the nation’s finest president. “Suddenly, right at the end,” mentioned Mohamad, 82, “things have gone very wrong.”

Born in a riverside slum, Widodo, 62, labored as a furnishings maker earlier than changing into mayor of the Javanese metropolis of Solo after which governor of the Jakarta area. He was identified for his down-to-earth type of management, usually turning up unannounced at markets and mosques to speak to folks about on a regular basis points like the worth of rice.

In 2014, he upended Indonesian politics by defeating Prabowo, an institution determine, within the presidential election. Dressed in conventional Indonesian batik, Widodo was photographed that yr for the quilt of Time journal, which known as him a “force for democracy.”

Widodo promised reform. But over his two phrases, he did not ship on many counts, say civil society teams. Despite campaigning on an anti-corruption platform, Widodo weakened the powers of the nation’s corruption investigations board. He rolled again environmental and labor protections in a job creation invoice, and he deserted a former ally, a Chinese Christian governor, who was persecuted by conservative Islamic hard-liners, say rights activists.

Tuturoong, the deputy chief of employees, mentioned Widodo needed to compromise on his preliminary marketing campaign guarantees so as “to build an effective government.”

In his second time period, struggling to consolidate energy amongst fractious events, Widodo introduced oligarchs, ex-generals and non secular conservatives into his cupboard. Prabowo, whom he had as soon as disavowed, was appointed protection minister. Adding Prabowo to the cupboard, Tuturoong mentioned, was a part of an effort to bridge political divides within the face of challenges just like the covid-19 pandemic.

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Prabowo, 72, served as a high-ranking commander within the Suharto period and was as soon as married to the dictator’s daughter. International human rights organizations and overseas governments have lengthy accused Prabowo of committing egregious human rights abuses underneath Suharto, alleging that he ordered the kidnapping of pupil activists and directed the torture and bloodbath of independence fighters in East Timor and elsewhere.

Prabowo was dishonorably discharged from the military in 1998 however by no means criminally charged. He sought to mount a political comeback, however after he misplaced the 2014 and 2019 elections to Widodo, he was extensively anticipated to retire from politics. So when Widodo invited Prabowo into his cupboard, he “almost single-handedly resurrected” Prabowo’s political profession, mentioned Supriatma, of the ISEAS.

Although Prabowo was barred for many years from coming into the United States due to his alleged involvement in atrocities, he was allowed to go to Washington in 2020 as protection minister. Two years later, he turned the primary particular person to declare his presidential candidacy and, in a shocking reversal, pitched himself as an inheritor to Widodo.

“I really believe we must continue everything that [Widodo] has done,” Prabowo mentioned one latest afternoon to a throng of supporters in Jakarta. “I will continue all his programs. I say that firmly.”

Until a number of months in the past, Widodo had been anticipated to assist Ganjar, the candidate put forth by his personal occasion, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). But key disagreements have pushed a wedge between the president and the PDI-P.

In April final yr, when protests erupted in Muslim-majority Indonesia over whether or not to permit Israel to take part in a soccer event, Widodo publicly disagreed with PDI-P leaders who had sided with the protesters. The demonstrations prompted FIFA to strip Indonesia of its proper to host the U-20 Men’s World Cup, a growth Widodo known as “sad and disappointing.”

Then in October, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court voted 5-4 to permit candidates youthful than 40 to run for president or vp if that they had beforehand been elected to workplace — a carve-out largely seen as benefiting Widodo’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, a 36-year-old mayor. Widodo’s brother-in-law, Chief Justice Anwar Usman, forged a deciding vote. Within days of the choice, Prabowo introduced Widodo’s son as his operating mate.

Widodo says he had nothing to do with the courtroom’s resolution, and Usman has denied any wrongdoing, saying solely that he acted based on his “conscience.” But an ethics panel discovered Usman responsible of “gross violations” and eliminated him from his function as chief justice. The courtroom’s verdict was allowed to face.

The PDI-P responded by accusing Widodo of “deserting” the occasion. Political scientists mentioned it was one of the overt makes an attempt at dynasty-building in fashionable Indonesia. Some of Widodo’s most distinguished supporters stop positions within the administration, citing their opposition to the courtroom motion.

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But Budiman Sudjatmiko, a distinguished member of the PDI-P who defected to assist Prabowo, mentioned, “What’s most important for us now is continuation.” Continuation, he added, of Widodo’s affect.