Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Indonesia’s president overcomes his slow start with policy successes

- By Karlis Salna and Rieka Rahadiana

Bloomberg News

Joko Widodo won the Indonesian presidency in 2014 by campaignin­g as a man of the people who could tackle graft and stand up to the political establishm­ent.

Expectatio­ns soon soured as Mr. Widodo, known as Jokowi, struggled to control his government and break free of the very elites he initially outmaneuve­red, including former President Megawati Soekarnopu­tri, who chairs his ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P. With his agenda languishin­g, markets noticed — the rupiah fell nearly 12 percent in his first year after taking office.

Nearly two years later, Mr. Widodo has notched up several policy wins, gotten his pick through for national police chief and is sounding tough on terrorism and against neighbors over territory, including China. Last month, Indonesia’s navy detained a Chinese boat near the Natuna Islands, arresting seven fishermen after firing warning shots into the air.

“We probably have to separate out the political from the economics, but politicall­y he has really in quite an impressive way consolidat­ed his position in the last year,” said Greg Fealy, an associate professor at the Australian National University. Since a Cabinet reshuffle in August, Mr. Widodo has been “systematic­ally distancing himself” from Mr. Megawati.

“He has much more authority, he has a far greater ability to get things done and he’s behaving more like the president that a lot of us expected that he would be,” Mr. Fealy said. Still, his success “is highly contingent on the economy continuing to do well and infrastruc­ture projects remaining on time.”

In June, lawmakers passed a bill for a controvers­ial tax amnesty that lasts until March 2017 and which the central bank says will result in 560 trillion rupiah ($43 billion) of inflows over an unspecifie­d period. The funds are needed to finance Mr. Widodo’s ambitious infrastruc­ture agenda which includes a pledge to build ports, roads and railways to spur growth in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy to 7 percent by the end of his term.

Mr. Widodo needs hundreds of billions of dollars for infrastruc­ture in his first term, according to the Public Works Ministry.

Another public relations win came last week after security forces announced they had killed the country’s most wanted militant, Santoso. Long a thorn in the side of authoritie­s, Santoso, who like many Indonesian­s uses only one name, was the leader of the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen and declared allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2014.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States