The 2024 Presidential Election
The Indonesian version.
Hello,
This topic is something that I’ve been thinking about for a while. As someone who have spent the last 13 years of my life in the United States, My knowledge of contemporary Indonesian politics is minuscule compared to that of its American counterpart.
I’ve been trying to fix this knowledge gap of mine, mostly because I’m planning to move back to Indonesia later this year. And it would bad form for me to be an ignorant foreigner in my own country.
One thing I have going for myself is that I know the basics, like how the presidential general election is held every five years (instead of four like in America). Funnily enough, the next election will happen this year and it will be the first time that both American and Indonesian presidents will be elected in the same year.
Perhaps this whole topic is moot for me anyways. I’m not even an Indonesian citizen anymore (having given it up in favor of my American citizenship), so I won’t be able to vote for any of these candidates.
However, I have heard a lot about Indonesian politics in the last few months when my parents were visiting. And from them, I get an idea of the political landscape and the upcoming election. While they do have their biases, I am willing to take them seriously because they have my best interests in mind.
Apparently, Anies has a strong Islamist stance - which is a big no no for Christians like my parents (and my family in general). Meanwhile, Ganjar seems to be the ‘intellectual’ of the three. Finally, Prabowo seems to be frontrunner. However, he has his controversies. In the last two election cycles, he ran for president before losing to the current president Joko Widodo, or Jokowi. Also, he was the running mate of a losing candidate in the election before.
So Prabowo has a history of getting close to winning it all but never quite doing it - the Buffalo Bills of Indonesian politics. But this time around, he has a weapon to ensure that his next shot at the presidency will be a successful one: the President’s son.
Meet Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the current mayor of Surakarta (but we just call it Solo) and the son of Jokowi. More importantly, he’s Prabowo’s running mate in the upcoming election. At only 36 years of age, he’s a spring chicken, politically speaking. Anyone with eyes could see that he only got his position because of his father.
As to be expected, there are those who are not happy with this clear example of nepotism. But as far as being the President’s son goes, he could do worse - much worse.
And that’s Indonesian politics in a nutshell. I would go into more detail, but my knowledge is surface level at best.
So where do I stand on this? Who would get my vote if I’m an Indonesian citizen? I’m still not sure. To be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of democratic politics. But I do like Prabowo if only for his political alignment.
According to Wikipedia, the Gerindra is a “nationalist, right-wing populist political party in Indonesia.” When I read that sentence, I was ready to become a Prabowo apologist, even though I knew very little about the guy or his platform.
Of course, I know better than to take Wikipedia at face value. However, I can’t help but see Prabowo in parallel to an important American populist figure: Donald J. Trump.
Let’s see:
Both men have checkered past (Prabowo was a military officer who may have been responsible for war crimes, Trump was a businessmen who engaged in some questionable business ventures).
Both had been divorced.
Both had many failed attempts in becoming president of their country (people forget this about Trump).
I don’t want to overstate my case because nowadays it’s fashionable to compare every political figure in the world who doesn’t conform to the standards of the Globalist American Empire to Trump. Example: Viktor Orban, Vladimir Putin, Jair Bolsonaro, Javier Milei, and so on.
All I’m saying is that Prabowo and Trump strikes me as two men cut from the same cloth. The fact that they’re both the leaders of their respective country’s right-wing populist movements strengthens this connection.
There is an important difference between the two: Prabowo is in control of his own political party while Trump have spent years struggling against the old guard of his own party who wants him gone.
This is probably because of the way political parties function in Indonesia. Unlike in the US where there are only two viable parties in opposition with one another (the Democrats and the Republicans), Indonesia has multiple parties working together to form coalitions. While there are still big political parties that control the system at large, the smaller parties do matter unlike in America where they’re just a joke.
If you’re an Indonesian who happens to be reading this post, feel free to comment below. Did I miss anything? Am I off in comparing Prabowo to Trump? Let me know. Seriously. I want to know.
Until next time,
Michael P. Marpaung