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Critics say Indonesia’s hard-won progress toward democracy has been set back under Joko Widodo, a two-term president who was once a political outsider.
By Richard C. Paddock and Muktita Suhartono
Report from Solo, Indonesia
Not long ago, the Indonesian president’s eldest son, Joko Widodo, ran a restaurant and a chain of dessert shops. He is now the symbol of a nascent political dynasty and the beneficiary of family maneuvers.
Thanks to a High Court ruling through his uncle, the president’s son Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, has the leading candidate for vice president in next month’s national elections. If he wins his price, he will become the youngest vice president in Indonesia’s history.
These machinations have unsettled critics, who warn that Joko seeks to undermine democratic reforms enacted after decades of dictatorship that helped Joko himself reach the presidency in 2014.
Three candidates are vying to succeed Joko in Indonesia’s February 14 elections: former general and now Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto. Prabowo, long accused of human rights abuses, lost the last two elections to Joko.
But this time, the president, widely known as “Jokowi,” puts his stamp on the shaping general: his son as a vice presidential candidate. The merger of the two political families turns out to give merit to his list, according to polls.
“It is clear that Jokowi is building a political dynasty,” said Yoes C. Kenawas, a research fellow at Atma Jaya University in Jakarta. Mr. Joko’s goal, he said, is to prepare his son to run for president in 2029. Serving under Mr. Prabowo would be a “period of apprenticeship.”
“Because at the end of the day, the goal is to be president,” he said, “not vice president. “
Joko, a former furniture manufacturer, rose from mayor of the city to governor and eventually to president of the world’s third-largest democracy without having family ties. After winning his first term, he declared that being president “does not mean passing the force on to my children. “
But after Joko won his second and final five-year term in 2019, his family members embarked on their own political careers. In 2020, Gibran was elected mayor of Solo and Joko’s son-in-law, Muhammad. Bobby Afif Nasution, Mayor-elect of Medan.
Richard C. Paddock has worked as a foreign correspondent in 50 countries on five continents, with posts in Moscow, Jakarta, Singapore and Bangkok. He has spent nearly a dozen years covering Southeast Asia, which he has covered since 2016 as a contributor to The Times. Learn more about Richard C. Paddock
Muktita Suhartono reports from Indonesia and Thailand. She joined The Times in 2018 and is based in Bangkok. More about Muktita Suhartono
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