JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network): For President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo, 2021 marks the year he seized the opportunity to tighten his grip on national politics after steering the country through the Delta-fuelled second wave of the pandemic.
The second wave peaked in mid-July with more than 50,000 daily cases recorded, pushing the country’s healthcare system to the brink of collapse and leading to the enforcement of emergency public activity restrictions (PPKM Darurat), the country's strictest mobility curbs.