All eyes on the race for the post of Jakarta governor

Jakarta

WHEN Ibu Cendana learned that, owing to a minor slip up, she would need to brave Jakarta traffic and take a ride with one of her daughters into the capital to vote, she had one answer: "Of course!"

Making the decision easier for the 86-year-old, who has called Jakarta home all her life, was the fact that for the first time, a fellow ethnic Chinese, Basuki Purnama, was on the ballot for governor of the country's capital.

Two decades after the race riots in which the homes and businesses of ethnic Chinese were razed, Mr Pu…