The outgoing president is playing kingmaker to a controversial ex-general
is leaving Indonesia’s presidency less creditably than he entered it. A decade ago the former furniture salesman, popularly known as, swept to power on a promise to defy the elites who had stage-managed the world’s third-biggest democracy since the fall of the dictator Suharto in 1998. But instead of beating the power brokers, Jokowi has joined them., a former general and son-in-law of Suharto, who has an appalling human-rights record and a professed ambivalence towards democracy.
Jokowi’s endorsement has made Mr Prabowo the favourite to win the presidency at the third attempt . His main rivals, Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo, both competent former governors, claim their rallies have been disrupted or cancelled by shadowy officials. This is a worrying augury for Indonesia, and an unworthy end to Jokowi’s tenure.has helped make Indonesia one of the best-performing economies in recent years.
Infrastructure has been overhauled, with thousands of miles of road and rail added. A package of reforms passed last year eased restrictions on foreign investment. By pressing firms to process nickel domestically, Jokowi has supported the development of an industry responsible for half the world’s output. Improved governance has contributed, among other things, to a fall in the rampant deforestation that has long made Indonesia one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases.
Mr Prabowo has vowed to continue most of Jokowi’s policies, reassuring investors. They are too complacent. The recent progress has come about in spite of Jokowi’s authoritarian instincts and delusions of grandeur, which Mr Prabowo seems likelier to emulate. The former general backs an epic white-elephant scheme of Jokowi’s to carve a new $34bn capital city out of the Bornean rainforest.
Mr Prabowo’s victory need not be the end of liberal politics in Indonesia: the advances that 200m voters have enjoyed may make them more demanding in future. Nonetheless the cronyism so evident in his campaign is dispiriting. Jokowi arrived in 2014 as a breath of fresh air. But by failing to entrench Indonesia’s democracy, even as he has strengthened its economy, he leaves behind a rotten smell.