Overexpectations and Disappointment: The Realities of President Jokowi’s Leadership

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Social Scientist, Director of the Asia Institute, University of Melbourne, Australia, Vedi R Hadiz, said that there were too excessive expectations for President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), which gave rise to great disappointment.

He conveyed this when he saw a number of professors and national figures who were disappointed by the issue of dynastic politics that had plagued the Jokowi family following the Constitutional Court’s decision which gave Gibran Rakabuming Raka the red carpet as vice presidential candidate (cawapres).

“I understand feeling very disappointed with the political maneuvers that allowed Gibran to become vice president, disappointed with his father who was once expected to be a reformer,” he said on the Rosi program on Kompas TV, Friday (17/11/2023).

“These expectations are too excessive, that now his behavior is like that,” said Vedi.

However, for Vedi, this disappointment actually doesn’t need to happen if you look at Jokowi’s track record as president.

According to him, high hopes cannot be given to Jokowi if he looks at the political economic reality that exists in Indonesia.

“This is a reality that makes it impossible for someone to emerge from local politics in a few years to the center of national politics without being supported by the forces of the oligarchy itself,” he said.

Also read: Observer: There is no guarantee that Prabowo can be controlled by Jokowi if he wins the 2024 presidential election

Before becoming a national figure, said Vedi, Jokowi was a person who did not have a political party to run as an election contestant.

Plus, Jokowi does not have the financial resources and political infrastructure to win elections, from regional head to president.

In the end, he had to borrow the vehicles, capital and political infrastructure from the oligarchs who would then return them when Jokowi came to power.

“And of course he must then take into account the interests of all these groups, right,” he said.

Learning from Jokowi, Vedi R Hadiz said, the New Order never completely disappeared in Indonesia.

“The fuel that runs Indonesia’s political economy is corruption, nepotism and abuse of power. I say that actually the New Order has never completely disappeared, there are still remnants of it from before,” he said.

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2023-11-17 22:28:00


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