A Javanese political wayang kulit finally unveiled itself on Monday when the Constitution Court ruled that the 40-year-old minimum age for Indonesian presidential and vice-presidential candidates did not apply to anyone who is an elected regional leader.
The decision cleared the way for Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the oldest son of Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, to possibly be the running mate to presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto in the February 2024 presidential election.
Although Gibran is 36 years old, he qualifies to contest in the election as he is the mayor of Surakarta city.
Jokowi doesn’t come from a political dynasty. He was a furniture businessman in Surakata (also known as Solo), where he became mayor and subsequently the Jakarta governor.
The outgoing president – who the Indonesian Constitution barred from running for a third term – has been accused of building a political dynasty.
Girbran is Surakata’s mayor and is now possibly a vice-president candidate. Jokowi’s youngest son, Kaesang Pangarep, who is 28 years old, was recently appointed as chairman of PSI, a youth-based party. The president’s son-in-law, Muhammad Bobby Afif Nasution, is the Medan mayor.
Coincidentally, Constitutional Court Chief Justice Anwar Usman is married to Jokowi’s younger sister, Idayati, in May 2022.
There’s no conflict of interest in the decision, which allows his nephew-in-law to contest in the Indonesian presidential election, according to Chief Justice Anwar. But some critical Indonesians thought otherwise. They say that the Makamah Konstitusi (Constitutional Court) is now Mahkamah Keluarga (Family Court).
Welcome to Indonesia’s political dynasty. Covering the country’s politics it seems that the families of ex-presidents dominate it.
Jokowi is not the only politician who desired that their children be Indonesian president or vice-president candidates. Other ex-presidents too wanted their sons and daughters also to rise.
Former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, the daughter of ex-president Sukarno, also wanted her daughter Puan Maharani to be the presidential bet of their party, Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
But Puan, the House of Representatives Speaker, tanked in the electability surveys. So PDI-P matriarch Megawati had to pick ex-West Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo as her party’s president and Indonesia senior minister Mahfud MD as vice-president candidates.
Former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono thought that his party, Democratic Party, had a deal with presidential candidate Anies Baswedan for his eldest son Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono to be his running mate. But Anies decided on another candidate, and the Democratic ditched Anies’ coalition.
Yenny Wahid, the daughter of former president the late Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, has been touted as a suitable running mate for Anies, Prabowo and Ganjar, the three politicians who will be contesting in the Indonesian presidential election. But Yenny, just like Puan and Agus, has poor electability in opinion polls.
How about the children of Suharto, the dictator who was president of Indonesia – are they in the running for the president or vice president posts?
Arguably, a family member is in the presidential race. The late Suharto’s former son-in-law is Prabowo, who was married to Titiek Suharto.
Why is there no deal between Jokowi and Megawati, as they are from the same party – PDI-P? Gibran could have been the running mate of Ganjar.
It is a personal issue between the two families. Many reasons, among them, Jokowi was not consulted on Ganjar’s candidacy. If he’s elected president, Ganjar will owe it to Megawati and not Jokowi.
PDI-P chair Megawati has also described President Jokowi, who has no official position in PDI-P, as a “party official”. She has been quoted as saying the PDI-P pick was not based on family (an indirect jab at Jokowi’s son).
Would she have said it if her daughter, Puan, was popular enough to be her party’s candidate?
The 2024 presidential race is a proxy fight between Ibu Ratu (queen mother) Megawati and Javanese King Jokowi, with Anies playing the spoiler.
Jokowi has cawe cawe (Javanese for “meddling”) in next year’s presidential election. In the past month, behaving like a Javanese King, he has given subtle hints that he was supporting Gerinda chairman Prabowo and, at the same time, seemingly supportive of his PDI-P colleague Ganjar’s bid to be president.
The Indonesian president has moved mountains – getting parties such as Golkar and National Mandate Party (PAN) in his government coalition – to join Prabowo’s coalition for his 2024 presidential bid. Jokowi also got his volunteer group, Projo (Pro Jokowi), with 9 million members – to support Prabowo. His son, Gibran, will likely be Defence Minister Prabowo’s running mate.
With the support of Jokowi, if Prabowo becomes president, he will be indebted to Jokowi, while if Ganjar wins, he will owe the presidency to Megawati.
It is a masterclass political move by the Javanese King – getting a former opponent – Prabowo lost twice to Jokowi in the 2014 and 2019 Indonesian presidential elections – to be an ally.
Monday’s wayang kulit revealed Jokowi’s alleged cawe cawe to prolong his wahyu (divine right to rule). The current wayang is whether Gibran will be Prabowo’s vice-president candidate. We’ll know soon as presidential and vice-presidential candidate registrations will close on Wednesday. Jokowi has to calculate the public sentiment concerning Gibran as a running mate as the response to the Constitutional Court’s controversial ruling was negative.
“What you see in Jokowi’s moves is the fourth layer. You can’t see the third, second and first layers,” an Indonesian political analyst told me.
Jokowi is indeed a Javanese king. Let’s see if Ibu Ratu Megawati or Anies, who is not the son of an Indonesian president, can out-manoeuvre him.
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