Jokowi (left) hosting a luncheon with the three presidential candidates contesting the 2024 election – Anies Baswedan (right), Ganjar Pranowo (foreground) and Prabowo Subianto (background) – at the Presidential Palace in Central Jakarta, on Oct. 30, 2023. - Antara
JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network): President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo on Monday (Oct 30) threw a luncheon with all three presidential candidates contesting the 2024 election, in what appears to be a show of unity and fairness ahead of the impending campaign season.
However, his move has largely been met with indifference and accusations of insincerity amid stark evidence that he has been giving preferential treatment to select candidates.
The stately lunch, held at the Presidential Palace, saw Jokowi sitting at a round table flanked by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle’s (PDI-P) nominee Ganjar Pranowo on one side and Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto on the other.
Both candidates have promised to continue the incumbent’s legacy if elected in February. Seated across Jokowi was Anies Baswedan, the former Jakarta governor who is an opposition candidate.
It was the first time the four figures were seen seated together at one table after the registration window closed. Jokowi reportedly took the opportunity to reassure the presidential candidates of his commitment to neutrality and to keeping the integrity of the state apparatus intact, a pledge analysts are convinced was an empty gesture.
Over roasted duck, stuffed chicken and a few seafood dishes, the three candidates later told reporters that the conversation between them was “light”, although Jokowi’s impartiality was a frequent talking point.
For dessert they had cubed mangoes, coconut milk and palm sugar over ice, an increasingly popular dessert from Riau province known as 'es laksamana mengamuk', roughly translated as “iced raging admiral”.
Prabowo later told reporters that the food was “quite good”.
“We told Pak Presiden that there are many people who look up to him, and that these people want him to stay neutral and ensure that all state apparatuses would too,” Anies said after the luncheon.
Ganjar, meanwhile, expressed hope that the candidates’ message of impartiality to the President would stick. He suggested that the three candidates appealed for Jokowi to safeguard the integrity of state institutions such as the Indonesian Military (TNI), the National Police and the nation’s numerous regional leaders.
“He is a good man. God willing, he will support a good democratic system,” said the former Central Java governor on Monday.
Jokowi himself did not issue any public statements about the luncheon, but told PDI-P heiress and House of Representatives Speaker Puan Maharani last week that he “supported them all for the sake of the country”.
Yet as early as March this year, Jokowi proclaimed that he may intervene if needed – also for the country’s sake. With an approval rating of 80 per cent late into his presidency, any endorsement from Jokowi would heavily impact the results of the election, analysts have argued.
Against this backdrop, Jokowi has remained vague but pointed in his support of Ganjar and Prabowo, at times hinting that his supporter base should endorse the PDI-P politician, while on other occasions suggesting it was Prabowo’s “turn” to lead the country.
Jokowi’s largest volunteer network, Projo, threw its weight behind Prabowo earlier this month, a strong signal that the incumbent could back his former rival, despite being a card-carrying member of the PDI-P.
The President fuelled further speculation when his eldest son, 36-year-old Surakarta Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka, was named Prabowo’s running mate last week, with the indirect help of his uncle, Constitutional Court Chief Justice Anwar Usman, who swayed the bench to rule in favour of amending presidential age requirements.
The President’s promise to keep the state apparatus neutral faced even more cynicism after he summoned 197 acting regional leaders to the palace on Monday to talk about staying impartial in the upcoming elections.
Publicly, the President asked the regional administrators “not to pick sides”, but experts are convinced that what is being said behind closed doors could be completely different.
Feri Amsari, a constitutional law expert from Andalas University, suggested that Jokowi is quite known as a “man of contradictions”, who says one thing but does something else entirely.
“He invited all the presidential candidates to look wise and impartial but the policies of his government are clearly aimed to support a certain presidential election candidate,” Feri told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
“The same goes for summoning acting regional leaders.”
Hundreds of regional leaders have vacated their posts since 2022, after the Home Ministry and pro-government factions at the House shot down an attempt to revise the 2017 Election Law in 2021.
As a result, plans to hold the regional elections in 2022 and 2023 were abandoned.
This delay allowed President Jokowi and Home Minister Tito Karnavian to appoint high-ranking state officials as acting governors until the regions in question elect their definitive leaders in 2024.
Civil society groups and political and law experts have criticised the wholesale direct appointment of interim regional leaders by the government, arguing that it goes against democratic principles.
They also insist that the appointment process is legally flawed, lacks transparency and is marred by conflicts of interest.
West Java’s acting governor, Bey Machmuddin, for instance, is still moonlighting as the Presidential Secretariat’s deputy for protocol, press and media. Bey was recently reported to the Indonesian Ombudsman by supporters of Anies for canceling a discussion event in Bandung that Anies was supposed to attend.
Bey insisted that he does not want province-owned buildings to host political events, but on that same day, Jokowi’s youngest son, Kaesang Pangarep, organised a political talk show at the state-owned Arcamanik Sport Venue, also in Bandung.
Firman Noor, a senior political researcher from the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), said that Jokowi’s meeting with the acting regional heads was another sign that the President wants to play kingmaker.
“Generally speaking, incumbents are in a much better position to use the tools of the bureaucracy to their benefit during elections. With the recent Constitutional Court ruling and fresh attempt to move up the regional elections, there seems to be a pattern of Jokowi using his resources to achieve success in the hunt for a successor,” he said.
The government is currently pushing for a law that would allow the regional elections to be held in September 2024, a month before the President’s last day in office. Jokowi has also boasted about his complete access to intelligence on the internal affairs of every political party.
