Promises may backfire on new Jakarta governor

Jakarta

AT local elections in April this year, Anies Baswedan, Jakarta's incoming governor, won by a landslide partly due to promises that he would shield the poor from harsh evictions, while doling out easy housing loans.

As he readies to take the oath of office on Monday, reality is beginning to bite. Last week, Mr Anies backed off from one of his key election pledges to exempt the poor from making deposits on housing loans.

A week earlier, the central government of Indonesian President Joko Widodo slapped down as "noise" his pledge to halt work on the US$40 billion land reclamation project in Jakarta Bay

It's all adding up to a rough star…