‘Make it easy for investors’
JAKARTA, July 23, (Agencies): Indonesia’s new president, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, promised to make life simpler for investors by beefing up the country’s threadbare infrastructure, untangling nearimpenetrable regulations and sacking his ministers if they aren’t up to the job.
The Elections Commission announced on Tuesday that the Jakarta governor had won the hardfought July 9 election by just over six percentage points, although his rival, Prabowo Subianto, plans to challenge the result in Constitutional Court.
“We need to get our economy growing. To do that we must have more investment and also deliver in terms of infrastructure,” Jokowi told Reuters in an interview on Saturday, given on the condition that it not be published until after he was officially named winner.
A lack of roads, ports, electricity and other basic services, along with corrupt bureaucracies, is beginning to disenchant foreign investors, essential for the resource-based economy to grow.
“(Investors) say getting business permits is very complicated. Some investors say they need two years. Imagine. So if we can give solutions for getting business permits, I’m sure that we can improve the infrastructure faster.”
Approach
Jokowi is the first businessman to become president of Indonesia, which took all six of its previous leaders from a political elite. His simple, direct approach and success in cutting through red tape appealed to ordinary voters. And investors have been pushing up share prices on expectations he would become leader of the world’s third-largest democracy and home to its biggest Muslim population.
Jokowi’s humble “I’m just like the rest of you” style has made him the country’s most popular politician and it is an image he is careful not to lose, repeatedly referring to his time as mayor of Solo, a small city, and later as the capital’s governor.
He has rented a small, plainly furnished house in central Jakarta while he waits to move, in October, into the sprawling presidential palace in central Jakarta, which began life in the 18th century as home to a wealthy Dutch businessman in the colonial era. Outside were three security guards in plain clothes.
Jokowi, in bare feet and dressed in white shirt and dark trousers, made clear he understood his presidential honeymoon could be brief.
There is little in the state coffers to address pressing problems from declining economic growth to rising poverty. But he has shown in Jakarta talent for finding money in the budget and has come down hard on officials who do not perform.
That, he said, is a policy he will take to the presidential office.
“If (ministers don’t succeed) there are more than a thousand other good people in Indonesia to replace them. I can cut and then replace them. It’s very simple for me,” he said.
“They have to be clean, they have to be competent, they have to have good leadership (skills) and a commitment to serve the people.”
He has faced accusations, which he denies, that he will be under the thumb of the chief of the party that supports him, former president Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Also: JAKARTA, Indonesia: Indonesia’s losing presidential candidate plans to file a legal challenge in the nation’s highest court, his campaign said Wednesday, a move that may prolong the political uncertainty in the country’s transition to democracy.
Jakarta Gov Joko Widodo, known to most as “Jokowi,” was declared the winner late Tuesday after all the votes were counted from the July 9 election.
Suharto-era general Prabowo Subianto withdrew shortly before the result was announced, alleging massive fraud during the election, and that it was unfair and undemocratic. He has repeatedly claimed that polling firms with links to his campaign showed he was ahead.
Campaign team spokesman Tantowi Yahya told foreign journalists that Subianto is contesting the voting procedure and his lawyers are preparing to file paperwork with the Constitutional Court within three days.
“We will not surrender our rights” to hold a second vote, Yahya said, “The indication of massive fraud and widespread irregularities is overwhelming.”