The significance of Indonesia’s 2014 presidential election, held on July 9, stretches far beyond the controversy generated by the losing candidate’s withdrawal from the process on Tuesday, when the result was declared, and by his decision to challenge the outcome in court. For the first time in the world’s fourth most populous country, the hold of its governing and military elite on its politics has been broken, by the election of Joko Widodo, the governor of Jakarta, carpenter-turned-furniture exporter and twice mayor, who grew up in a slum. Indonesia, as the world’s largest Muslim nation, has been a model for nascent democracies, not least for the Arab world. Widodo’s election now marks a tectonic shift in the body politic of the world’s 16th largest economy (nominal GDP), which is also a founding member of the ASEAN and a G-20 major economy.
In contrast, his rival, Prabowo Subianto, who rejected the result as fraudulent, is a retired general, son-in-law of former strongman Suharto, whose three-decade-long authoritarian presidency ended in 1998 after pro-democracy protests, and faces allegations of human rights abuse. The election was marred by reports of faulty counting and voting irregularities from some polling stations, but Widodo’s winning margin of 6 per cent (53 against Subianto’s 47 per cent) is seen as decisive, given the 130 million votes cast. The winner will not assume office till October, but the media, leaders in Subianto’s own coalition and outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono have urged him to accept the result.
