Mehmet Özay 22.12.2018
Indonesia, the
most populous Muslim nation, which is also weighed as the third largest democracy
in the world, is preparing for upcoming presidential and parliamentary
elections to be held in April 2019. Though there are numerous nationalist and
Islamic parties, two presidential candidates are backed by two political camps
based on mutual understandings and interests.
The first
candidate is the incumbent president Joko Widodo, mostly referred to as Jokowi,
and the second candidate is Prabowo Subianto, a former lieutenant-general, the
chairman of Great Indonesian Party (Gerindra).
Having been
recognized as a down-to-earth figure who has accomplished improvement, Jokowi increasingly
gathered overwhelming support since his early days as Mayor of Solo, East Java,
following his occupation as the governor of Jakarta, and was later linked into
becoming president under the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
Due to his relentlessly
projection for equal progress and the welfare of hundreds of diverse
ethnicities carried on through his style of simplicity and sincerity, Jokowi
was trusted once more with another chance to lead the nation.
Meanwhile, Prabowo
Subianto, a former genderal and son-in-law of former ‘dictator’ Suharto, who lost
the previous election, admitted to displaying a more ambitious strategy by
using religious and ethnicities programs formed into the politics of fear of
the psychologically victimized groups such as Muslim orthodox groups, Islamist
and nationalist parties.
Though one may assume
that the upcoming presidential election is merely a democratic routine which
occurs every five years, others deem it as an apocalyptic manner as to whether
the unity of nation will exist or wane.
Hence, the ones
familiar with the nation’s political environment are not getting surprised as
the political discourse is being structured around existentiality of the state.
This discourse became more apparent in the latest speech of Prabowo for the campaign
meeting in Bogor, West Java.
Prabowo asserted
that if he does not defeat incumbent president Jokowi in upcoming April 2019
elections, the nation will face a serious peril to the extent to be extinct.
One may regard this assertion as Prabowo acting ambitious in order to win the
elections and that he is playing the last card. The politics of fear that he
brough about is signing the level of frustation he reflected.
However, Probowo’s
discourse should be ernastly taken into consideration with the developments in
national politics in recent years, in particular, such as one of the largest
demonstrations that occurred in Jakarta, in November.
The eye-opening demonstration
for people who are alien to Indonesian politics was conducted as an anniversary
of momentum demonstration aimed to pull down the blasphemes governor, Basuki
Tjahaja Purmana (Ahok), an ethnic Chinese Christian, in 2016.
Unlike previous demonstrations
that lacked a somewhat clear objective, on this time occasion the masses dubbed
the rally as Reuni 212, which was
soon twisted as ‘change the president’ (GantiPresiden,
2019) campaign - another political slogan fired by Prabowo supporters where he
was found galloping it within his political advantages.
Prabowo does not
seem to be happier with the current political situation in the country. However,
quite interestingly, he is pointing his finger not only to his rival candidate but
also to the politicial elites, who displayed dismissive roles in post-Suharto
era, since May 1998.
His dissapointment
towards the political elites has been observed throughout the decades. It is
argued that Prawobo is referring to a small number of elites who have
controlled the major sources of the country.
If this is so,
then it should be rightfully asked whether the aim of his accusation of Jokowi
or not. It is obviously asserted that the president Jokowi is not counted among
this type of political elite.
Since the fall of
Suharto regime, the reform era has not given fruits in terms of sustainable institutional
changes. Rather, the status quo has been maintained through the successful
efforts of the elites. Even political parties such as, Democrat Party (DP) and the Prosperous Justice Party (Partai
Keadilan Sejahtera-PKS) gradually eroded
the hopes of the masses in all corners of the country due to their own
irrelevant policies and decisions.
While Prabowo directly
accuses and puts all political elites into the same bucket of mistakes, he does
not clarify how he would rebuild the failed institutions under the hands of the
elected leaders. This is because, as he asserts, the latter have dismissed the
mandate given by the electorate and led the country into wrong direction.
Beyond this, there
is a quite contradictory perspective in Prabowo’s assertions which include the
peonage role supposed to be played by influential Islamic figures. Hence, it is
quite questionable whether this discourse is still effective or not, since the
incumbent president Jokowi embraced Ma’ruf Amin as a running mate - an infamously
charismatic and moderate figure.
Ma’ruf Amin is
trust as the general chairman of the Association of Religious Scholars of
Indonesia (Majelis Ulama Indonesia-MUI)
and the head of the board of advisers of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) to get into the race
of the coming election together.
A fact that seems
to be forgotten by the majority of the people is that Prabowo played a crucial
role with Megawati Sukarnoputri, head of PDI-P, to have picked up Jokowi as the
candidate to rule the capital city in 2012.
And while Jokowi then
chose Ahok as his deputy, Prabowo did not show any hesitation to support them.
Hence, Prabowo surprisingly switched and became an ally with some groups known
to be against the non-Muslim governor in Jakarta.
While all these
events are occurring in the opposition bloc led by Prawobo, president Jokowi
and his coalitian allies do not prefer to fight back, at least until now as
observed. Jokowi seems to prefer democratic and diplomatic approaches without
undermining the foundation of the current civil order.
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