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Asian Angle | As US gets to know Indonesia’s Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo, China likely to do the same
- Surveys suggest that front runners for the 2024 election are Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, Governor of Central Java Ganjar Pranowo, and ex-Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan
- US officials are getting to know two of them, and it’s likely China will hold such meetings too, if only to know where the next leader will stand on regional and global affairs
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As Indonesia gears up to hold its next presidential election in February 2024, major powers will be hoping that a friendly new president will be voted in amid the US-China rivalry.
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It seems that Washington has already begun to approach some of the potential presidential candidates to get to know them better, while Beijing has not yet made such moves.
According to recent Indonesian surveys, there are three candidates for president whose electability is above 20 per cent: Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, Governor of Central Java Ganjar Pranowo, and Anies Baswedan, former governor of Jakarta.
The ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) on Friday officially proposed Ganjar, a PDI-P cadre, as its presidential candidate, but former general Prabowo’s Gerindra Party has nominated him as its preferred candidate.
Meanwhile, Anies has been jointly nominated by the National Democrats (NasDem), the Democrat Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).
Two of the three potential candidates attended US institutions: Anies’ doctorate is from Northern Illinois University while Prabowo, like several Indonesian military leaders of his time, attended Fort Benning in Georgia for part of his military training.
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In contrast, Ganjar’s degrees are from Gadjah Mada University (UGM) and the University of Indonesia. Anies and President Joko Widodo are also UGM alumni.
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