INDONESIA: Following a campaign rally last week, Indonesian presidential candidate Anies Baswedan dabbed sweat from his brow as his convoy made its way past a crowd of fans. He abruptly rushed out of his truck to sign one last signature for a thrilled adolescent girl.
With less than six weeks until the Feb. 14 election to lead the world’s third-largest democracy, such spontaneity, combined with campaign pledges to reverse what he deems a deterioration of democratic values, has helped propel the former Jakarta governor into second place in some opinion polls.
However, most surveys show Anies tied with the ruling party’s nominee, Ganjar Pranowo, and trailing the leading candidate, Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto.
“What we offer is change, restoring civic life,” Anies, 54, told Reuters last week following a campaign event in West Java, Indonesia’s most populous region.
The pledge of reform comes amid indignation among many Indonesians, including senior government officials, over what they regard as President Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi, attempting to retain authority after a decade in power.
The Constitutional Court, led by Jokowi’s brother-in-law, changed election eligibility standards in October, allowing the president’s son to run for vice president on Prabowo’s ticket. The decision triggered fears of a return to the nepotism and patronage politics that characterized former President Suharto’s decades-long dictatorship.
As a member of the ruling PDI-P, Jokowi first appeared to support Ganjar, but has now implicitly backed Prabowo, a controversial general and former Suharto son-in-law.
Anies stated that in past elections, “there was no talk about neutrality or concerns about foul play.” “There’s nothing like what we’re seeing today.”
Anies’ greatest chance of winning would be to finish second and force the election into a second round if the top candidate, who is expected to be Prabowo, fails to secure a simple majority on February 14. Anies would like to draw Ganjar’s fans in a second round.
Anies is widely acclaimed for his scholastic background and oratory as a former education minister, university rector, and Fulbright Scholar with a PhD in public policy from Northern Illinois University.
Despite his support for moderate Islam, Anies has been chastised for his association with radical Islamists.
Despite having the biggest Muslim population in the world, Indonesia is officially secular and has sizable Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and other groups.
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Anies defended his track record of inclusivity, claiming that while heading Jakarta, a city of over 10 million people, he helped simplify permit procedures for erecting places of worship of any religion.
“I’m content if people are willing to accept open-mindedness and evaluate (me) based on facts.” “I can’t make them do it if they don’t want to,” he explained.
Muhaimin Iskandar, the leader of Indonesia’s largest Islamic party, which is also affiliated with the country’s largest moderate Muslim group, Nahdlatul Ulama, is Anies’ running partner.
According to Made Supriatma, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, Anies’ support from both conservative and progressive Islamic political parties has benefited him in polls, but if minority groups remain skeptical, he may lose the presidency.
Anies, who comes from a middle-class family in Yogyakarta, Java, spoke briefly on his policy agenda, which includes proposals to raise taxes on the country’s ultra-wealthy, but provided no details.
He has committed, like the other candidates, to produce growth and jobs, incentivize renewable energy investment, and control inflation in Southeast Asia’s largest economy if elected.
At his campaign visits, he has drawn thousands of fans drawn to his intellectual personality and pro-democracy platform.
While listening to his speech in a full sports hall, Tasikmalaya resident Atik Suwatini, 46, said she will vote for him because “he’s smart and he wants change.”
