A crucial election year for India, Indonesia

STRADDLING the Indo-Pacific, India and Indonesia, two of Asia's largest and noisiest democracies with a combined population of over 1.6 billion hold crucial elections in 2019. Their outcome will determine if Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joko Widodo (or Jokowi as he is popularly referred to) will secure another term in office. Both leaders, oozing with charisma and high purpose, received resounding mandates in 2014 but have disappointed for similar reasons.

Under normal circumstances, these elections should not attract much global attention. After all, India has been a successful yet shaky parliamentary democracy since its independence from Great Britain in 1947. Elections take place like clockwork in India, with the highly respected Election Commission (EC) holding the line against electoral malpractice and abuse. Indonesia has also come of age as a young democracy. Two decades after the fall of President Suharto, 2019 will mark the fifth successive elections in the country's post-1998 democracy era.

What makes the elections this year in the two countries particularly significant is the current context. Globalisation is under attack in rich Europe and America and the rise of illiberal democracy, evident in Central Europe and even in parts of Asia, is dangerously becoming the new normal.