Joko Widodo: A unifying ‘outsider’ with an ambitious Golden Indonesia plan
WADING through the dense traffic of Jakarta, amid the towering skyscrapers, pristine tropical gardens and green-painted bicycle lanes, one can spot many billboards featuring Joko Widodo, the Indonesian president who has led the country since 2014.
Indonesia is a booming South-east Asian nation with a population of nearly 280 million. For Chinese visitors, the country and its people bear a strong resemblance to China in the late 1990s and early 2000s – almost exuberant in confidence as its economy moves onto a fast track of development. The country’s elites are also closely studying China’s rise, viewing it as a path that they can emulate.
Under the leadership of Widodo, widely known as Jokowi, the country has made huge strides in infrastructure development and economic reform. China-Indonesia relations have also grown stronger following frequent high-level meetings in recent years and growing cooperation in fields including high-speed rail and electric vehicles (EVs).
In this interview at the Merdeka Palace, one of Indonesia’s presidential residences, Widodo still gives off a lean, efficient, yet somewhat shy impression even after nine years in office. The 63-year-old, who came from a modest background, emerged nearly a decade ago vowing to do something for the “little guy” in Indonesia.
Widodo is entering his tenth and final year in office before the nation’s next presidential election in February 2024.
During his tenure, the country has formulated an ambitious Golden Indonesia plan, which aims to turn the world’s fourth most populous nation into a developed country that ranks among the world’s top five economies by 2045.
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In July 2022, Widodo became the first foreign head of state to pay a state visit to China after the Beijing Winter Olympics earlier that year, where the two countries’ presidents vowed to boost ties and deepen cooperation. On Friday (Jul 28), Widodo returned to China to attend the opening ceremony of the Fisu Summer World University Games in the south-western metropolis of Chengdu.
Before he embarked on his second trip to China in a year, Widodo shared his main political philosophy, which is “work, work and work”.
‘High-speed’ relationship building with China
Since taking office, Widodo’s work has focused on the economy, prioritising infrastructure development and balancing regional development across Indonesia. The focus also brought tremendous opportunities for cooperation with China.
One of the flagship projects that the two countries are working on is the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Rail, after Widodo chose China over Japan as the partner for the project in 2015.
The 142.3 km railway will make Indonesia the first country in South-east Asia with a high-speed rail line – one that could cut the travel time between Indonesia’s capital and its fourth-largest city from over three hours to around 40 minutes.
It also marks the first overseas rail project to fully use Chinese railway systems, technology and industrial components, after Xi proposed the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013. The line is expected to officially open in August as Indonesia celebrates the 78th anniversary of its independence.
After Widodo took office, he opened the door to investment from China. Today, the footprint of Chinese companies can be seen almost everywhere in Indonesia: in infrastructure, mineral resources, digital infrastructure, consumer products, Internet applications and EV-related industries.
“Our strategic partnership has been going on for 10 years, and many concrete benefits have been achieved,” Widodo told Caixin. “I’m confident that this partnership will be even stronger, mutually beneficial and equitable.”
China has been Indonesia’s largest trading partner for 10 consecutive years. Bilateral trade grew 19.8 per cent in 2022 to over US$149 billion, according to the Chinese foreign ministry. Last year, China’s investment in Indonesia reached US$8.19 billion.
Another area that Widodo has leveraged is Indonesia’s rich natural resources as he aims to transform the country from a raw material exporter into a production centre for EV batteries by establishing a lithium battery production chain.
As Widodo implements the “downstreaming” strategy, Chinese companies have been the core force in Indonesia’s lithium battery production chain. A number of leading manufacturers including Contemporary Amperex Technology have invested in factories in Indonesia, which holds nearly 20 per cent of the world’s reserves of nickel, a key battery-making metal.
Noting that Indonesia has “great potential in natural resources, demographic bonus and a growing middle class”, while China has the advantage in technology and capital funding, Widodo believes Beijing and Jakarta should collaborate through investment cooperation, especially in the green energy and EV industries, as well as in the development of Nusantara, Indonesia’s new capital city. “I invite Chinese investment in these sectors,” he said.
Widodo announced the US$32 billion Nusantara new capital project in 2019 in an effort to alleviate problems such as the overcrowding in Jakarta, urban congestion and imbalanced regional economic development.
Historically, many Indonesian presidents have considered relocating the capital, but none have ever been implemented. If Widodo’s blueprint for Nusantara becomes a reality after he steps down, it could become a prominent political legacy that he leaves in Indonesia.
Unexpected political rise
Indonesia is a highly diverse nation in terms of ethnicity and religion. Maintaining its founding value of “unity in diversity” remains a challenge.
After he was re-elected in 2019, Widodo invited Prabowo Subianto, whom he defeated in two elections, to join the Cabinet as defence minister. Widodo also received support from other parties through political bargaining, expanding the number of seats held by his ruling coalition in the legislature to 75 per cent.
During Widodo’s second term, this man who originally claimed to be an “outsider” has skilfully managed to navigate Indonesia’s elite politics, several political observers said.
Born in 1961 in Surakarta, a city in Central Java also known as Solo, Widodo grew up the son of a bamboo vendor. He earned a degree in forestry from Universitas Gadjah Mada, one of Indonesia’s finest educational institutions. In the late 1980s, he set up a furniture manufacturing company and got into the export business.
His unexpected political rise began in 2005 as Indonesia began to hold local elections following the fall of the previous president Suharto. The then 44-year-old joined the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and won the mayoral election in Solo.
On his first day in office, Widodo toured the city’s slums with high-ranking municipal officials – his first “blusukan”, or impromptu visits in Javanese, and a governance style that later became his trademark.
To Widodo, building trust, coming up with a tactical vision, having the courage to make decisions, and being able to execute them are essential for leading a nation that consists of more than 17,000 islands and hundreds of ethnic groups.
“As a diverse nation, the key to development lies in trusted leaders through democracy, mutual trust among groups and also equitable development,” he said.
During his first eight years leading Indonesia, the government built 2,042 km of toll roads and 5,500 km of non-toll roads, completed 38 dams, 18 seaports and 16 airports, according to the president’s Cabinet secretariat.
The down-to-earth president often dresses casually, going to markets and neighbourhoods to understand the price of goods and the development of infrastructure. Images of him inspecting construction sites, inaugurating subway lines and cutting ribbons for ports and highways have also become a common sight in Indonesian media during his tenure.
Golden Indonesia
Compared with his first five-year term as president, which focused on domestic development, Widodo has been more actively involved in international affairs since 2019.
The host of the Group of 20 (G20) Summit last year, Widodo visited both Ukraine and Russia in June 2022, becoming the first Asian national leader to travel between the two warring countries since the conflict broke out.
During the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Bali last November, Widodo sought balance among the different parties, saying that “we must end the war”, while reminding world leaders that “we should not divide the world into parts” and that “we must not allow the world to fall into another Cold War”.
He told Caixin that the ability to gain the trust of parties in a dispute is “very important”, adding that “Indonesia can be the trustworthy party”.
Under his leadership, Indonesia has experienced a period of stable economic development and become a “star” of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). It is the only South-east Asian country in the G20 and has a decisive influence on Asean’s policy direction, as its population and economic scale make up 40 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively, of the bloc’s total.
During a July meeting with the foreign ministers of Asean member states and partner countries, Widodo said the bloc must not become a stage for competition and that it “cannot be a proxy for any country” amid intensified geopolitical tension in the world.
A Goldman Sachs report published in December 2022 predicted that the Indonesian economy is expected to grow into the fourth-largest in the world by 2050, making the goals of Golden Indonesia 2045 attainable.
Indonesia’s next presidential election will soon be underway. Although Widodo is unable to run again due to term limits, he told Caixin that “policy continuity must be maintained and improved to achieve the vision of Golden Indonesia 2045”.
“Hopefully, this decade can be seen as an acceleration towards Golden Indonesia 2045,” he said.
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