New face of
Indonesia politics: Interview with Jokowi
First Indonesian president to emerge
from outside elite circles sees himself as an everyman working to uplift fellow
citizens
By Zuraidah Ibrahim Deputy Editor
ON THE
blisteringly hot afternoon of Indonesia's 69th independence day, Mr Joko
Widodo's quick changes of attire included a white long-sleeved shirt, black-
and-yellow football kit and a gunny sack. He had joined a sack race and then a
football match as part of the traditional Aug 17 festivities in the gritty
working-class district of Pluit in northern Jakarta.Midway through the game, and after scoring a
goal, he left the field and plopped himself flat on a concrete bench, feigning
lack of fitness but not so tired as to resist hamming it up for television
cameras. The crowd roared with laughter, extending camera phones and bare
hands.
The
attraction is mutual, Mr Joko would confess later, ensconced in his governor's
office in Jakarta, where he will work until late October when he moves across
town to the Presidential Palace.
"Energy,"
he said. "I get energy from the people."
Ask him
how he got to be where he is, catapulted in less than a decade from being a mayor
of a city of barely half a million to President-elect of the world's
third-largest democracy, and he replies: "It is the people."
Mr Joko is
the product not only of Indonesia's post-Suharto democratisation, but also of
its aggressive decentralisation. To quell potential separatist sentiments in
this vast archipelago, Jakarta astutely devolved authority to local governments
from 2000 in a process popularly called pemekaran or "blossoming".
Those
unhappy with the way their districts or cities were being run could now take up
the challenge themselves instead of taking it out on the national government.
That was how a small businessman from central Java first appeared on the
political scene. "I felt that my city, Solo, was not developing as it
should be, not like this, but like this," he says, his slender fingers
slashing the air downwards.
"People
such as myself had the chance to serve the community and I wanted to try and
turn the city around. So I tried and I did."
Winning
the mayoral election with 37 per cent of the votes, he cleaned up the streets
of Solo of illegal hawkers, shepherded them into proper markets and streamlined
the bureaucracy. In 2010, when he ran for re-election, he won 91 per cent of
the votes. He was still an unknown outside of his region, until his successful
bid for Jakarta's governorship in 2012.
In the
teeming capital, he was ambitious. Instead of small projects, he wrestled with
the key causes of floods and traffic congestion: Squatters living on the
fringes of a major dam that needed to be dredged to contain rain and floodwater
were rehoused in new flats, and street hawkers were moved into covered markets.
He
kickstarted a stalled MRT project, put more public buses on the roads, and
introduced cards entitling the poorest families to education help and free
health care.
Now, less
than a decade after becoming a mayor, he will be sworn in as Indonesia's
seventh president. "Do you think it's too fast?" he said.
Indeed,
his work pace is becoming legendary. On the campaign trail, some collapsed in
exhaustion trying to keep up with him. One senses he is seized by the mission
of getting Indonesia going after decades of being held back by stultifying
bureaucracy and endemic corruption. He knows progress is possible from personal
experience.
He grew up
in a riverbank slum. "We had one well for 10, 15 families," he says.
"I was brought up on small town values, hard work, thrift and then also
honouring your word. This has remained with me today."
Graduating
with a forestry degree from one of the country's top universities, Gadjah Mada,
he set up a business supplying wood flooring, before settling into
manufacturing furniture. "My first exports were to Singapore," he
says.
He was a
regular visitor to Singapore not just because of his dealings with furniture
companies here, but also because two of his three children studied here. The
eldest, Gibran, studied at Orchid Park Secondary and went on to MDIS. Now 25,
he runs his own catering business. His daughter Kahiyang Ayu, 23, stayed in
Solo. His youngest, Kaesang, 19, is studying for his International
Baccalaureate at ACS (International).
He
mentions that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was the first foreign leader to
call him once the election results were announced. "We had a good
discussion and I'm looking forward to meeting him in person."
He adds:
"I think your leaders have good vision, work very hard with your
people."
That
theme, of government and people working hard together, is at the core of his
basic political philosophy. Hence his trademark walkabouts - or blusukan.
"Every day, I stay in the office maybe only one or maximum two hours.
After that, I go to the people; I ask the people what they need," he says.
"And sometimes also, they give new ideas. When they have problems,
sometimes also they give the solution."
Mr Joko,
53, is the first Indonesian president to emerge from outside elite circles.
Unfailingly polite, the only interview question that seems to make him bristle
is whether that elite accepts him. He looks at you with narrowed eyes and there
is an edge in his voice when he replies: "I don't know. No, I think better
you ask the people, ask the people. You ask the people."
The fact
that his main contender was Mr Prabowo Subianto, a throwback to Mr Suharto's
autocratic era, made his own novelty all the more obvious. Most Indonesians
were not complaining. A volunteer movement sprung up around his campaign,
astounding even the most hardnosed watchers of Indonesian society. It climaxed
in a mega concert during the seventh day in the month of Ramadan, at which
hundreds of famous musicians and singers came together in a show of
unadulterated support for Mr Joko.
Veteran
journalist and poet Goenawan Mohamad, writing in Tempo earlier this month,
reflected: "That afternoon in the Gelora Bung Karno stadium, in the
enthusiasm of those thousands of people, the universal dropped by momentarily.
Not from the sky, but from the dust on the streets that stuck to the sweat of
the people with hope. An 'us' was born."
That was
the moment when politics became not about "them", the people in
power, but about "us, all of us", he wrote.
Throughout
the interview, Mr Joko is affable, polite and insists on speaking English even
when questions are posed to him in Bahasa Indonesia because, as his aide says,
it is for an English newspaper. He does not flinch from it, even though one
senses he is more comfortable in Bahasa.
Yesterday,
the last constitutional spanner Mr Prabowo tried to throw into the works was
parried by the Constitutional Court, leaving Mr Joko focused on the future.
Among his
priorities are to educate every child in every household and introduce a basic
health- care card for Indonesians. "These are the basic human needs,"
he says. He also wants to limit the opportunities for corruption by building a
system that makes it easier to trace the flow of money.
He must
also choose his Cabinet, which will reveal much about his priorities, and how
much sway vested interests have. He brushes aside with grace suggestions that
his party leader and former president Megawati Sukarnoputri might exercise
undue influence on his choices. He says he has a lot of respect for Ibu
Megawati and other senior party leaders, but adds: "All the decisions will
be made by me. Because you know we have in Indonesia, the presidential system.
I am the chief executive. The sole chief executive."
In Joko
Widodo, Indonesia seems to have found a president energised by the challenge of
uplifting 250 million fellow citizens and convinced he is the everyman who can
do it.
- Changing the direct
statements into the indirect speech
1.
Direct: He said, "I get
energy from the people."
Indirect: He said that he got energy
from the people.
Analysis: the verb forms change (get
{present} → got {past}) and the pronouns (I →he) from direct speech to indirect
speech.
2.
Direct:
"I felt that my city, Solo, was not developing as it should be, not like
this, but like this," he said.
Indirect: He said that he felt that
his city, Solo, was not developing as it should be, not like this, but like
this.
Analysis: the verb of the direct
speech is in the past form, so the verb in the indirect is usually also in a
past form and the pronouns change (I →he; my → his) from direct speech to
indirect speech.
- Changing the direct question
into the indirect speech
1.
Direct: "Do you think it's too fast?" he said.
Indirect: He asked me if I thought it
was too fast.
Analysis: asked is used to report
yes/no questions, not say or tell.
2. Direct: " What do you need in the future?" he said.
Indirect: He asked what I need in the future.
Analysis: asked is used to report
yes/no questions, not say or tell.
- Changing the direct Imperatives
into the indirect speech
1. Direct: I said to the child, “Do not
look down into the well!”
Indirect: I warned the child not to look down into the well.
Analysis: In
order to change an imperative sentence into the indirect speech, we use a to-infinitive
(to look).
2. Direct: He said to me, “Post this
letter at once!”
Indirect: He ordered me to post that letter at once.
Analysis: In order to change an imperative sentence into the indirect speech,
we use a to-infinitive (to post).
