What Widodo’s pick for veep says about Indonesian politics
After years of battling sectarian politics and attacks on the strength of his religious beliefs, Indonesia’s president has joined forces with Islamic leader Ma’ruf Amin to boost his election chances
As a practising Muslim from a traditional Javanese heartland, President Joko Widodo’s Islamic credentials should be beyond question.
But after years of battling sectarian politics and repeated attacks on the strength of his religious beliefs, Indonesia’s leader has joined forces with an Islamic cleric and figurehead of the world’s largest Muslim organisation in an effort to win re-election.
The man, universally known as “Jokowi”, ended months of speculation on Thursday by picking 75-year-old Islamic scholar Ma’ruf Amin as his running mate for next year’s presidential election. Their challenger is controversial former Army General Prabowo Subianto, who raised eyebrows by confirming deputy governor of Jakarta, Sandiaga Uno, as his own running mate just hours before the Friday deadline.
Caught between an earthquake and sex abuse in Indonesia
The contest is a repeat of the 2014 presidential election, when Widodo, 57, from Surakarta, Central Java – perceived as a fresh challenger to vested political interests – defeated Prabowo, 66, a charismatic firebrand with deep ties to Indonesia’s business and military elite.
But the eleventh-hour choices for vice-president demonstrate the long shadows cast by Jakarta’s divisive gubernatorial election last year, which saw Widodo’s political ally, the ethnic Chinese Christian Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (inset), known as “Ahok”, accused of blasphemy. The president’s new running mate Amin played a decisive role in the 2017 polls when, amid heated protests by Muslim groups in the streets and online, he publicly condemned Purnama for insulting the Koran, despite contested evidence. As head of the Indonesian Ulama Council, he testified against Purnama at the resulting trial, which saw the former Jakarta governor sentenced to two years in prison much to the dismay of human rights and secular activists.
Has Malaysia moved past race-based politics? By-election will give first clue
Prabowo’s candidate, Anies Baswedan, won the 2017 campaign alongside Uno, 49, a former businessman and investor who will now stand for vice-president. After last year’s victory, Uno said it was regrettable that race and religion had dominated the Jakarta campaign.