Indonesia sees power plant impasse, faltering president

Jakarta

INDONESIA announced with great fanfare in 2011 that it would build South-east Asia's biggest coal-fired power plant on the island of Java, but the US$4 billion project is yet to be launched and President Joko Widodo is on the horns of a dilemma.

After repeated delays and at least two revisions to land acquisition laws holding up the Japanese-backed project, Mr Joko told investors in Tokyo last month that construction of the desperately needed plant would finally start within weeks. But to do that he may have to evict dozens of landowners who are refusing to give up their rice paddy fields to make way for the plant - and deal another blow to his declining popularity.

There is no sign yet of what Mr Joko will do about the coal plant in the Batang region of Java. But his predicament is emblematic of the headwinds he has run into since taking …