‘I pose no risk to Australia’: chameleon reformer Anies Baswedan in the race to rule Indonesia
Former Jakarta governor and presidential hopeful Anies Baswedan says he should be judged on his record of good governance.
Indonesian presidential hopeful Anies Baswedan – the most likely challenger in a second-round election run-off with defence minister and frontrunner Prabowo Subianto – says he “poses no risk” to Australia and will build on the bilateral relationship to help balance China’s dominance of Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
The former academic who rode a wave of Islamic zealotry to win the 2017 Jakarta governor election insists Australia need not fear that an Anies presidency would take its largest neighbour down a more conservative Muslim path, and asks to be judged on his record of good governance and non-discriminatory policies.
The only one of three presidential candidates running on a reform platform ahead of February 14 elections, Mr Anies has drawn moderate and conservative Muslim Indonesians, young and old, labourers and professionals unhappy with the current administration to his campaign events. Many have embraced his grassroots approach inviting voters to challenge him with questions.
At a Sunday rally at Bandung’s Sea of Fire – a field named for the independence fighters who burned down the city in 1946 rather than cede to the British – thousands of supporters greeted the owlish professor like a rock star as he spoke of economic inequality and the weakening of Indonesia’s hard-fought democracy by a small number of elites.
As Jakarta governor, Mr Anies proved to be one of Indonesia’s most capable pandemic-era technocrats, co-ordinating health services and imposing early lockdowns and social distancing in the capital while the country’s health minister was spruiking herbal remedies.
But he has struggled to live down that earlier divisive campaign – backed by erstwhile political ally Mr Prabowo – both with religious minorities, moderate Indonesians and the country’s neighbours. “I pose no risk,” Mr Anies said in an exclusive interview when asked how he might allay the concerns of Australians who recall the 2016 Jakarta rallies, which drew hundreds of thousands of Indonesians to the streets demanding the city’s incumbent ethnic Chinese, Christian governor be prosecuted for blasphemy.
“Did Jakarta become more conservative under my governorship? No. Because I had the support of conservatives, I was able to do what a democratic leader should be able to do.”
He cited as an example his record of approving decades-stalled church permits, and years of inter-religious peace under his stewardship. “I can talk to conservatives,” he said. “And when I do my message to them is that we are here to provide equal opportunity and justice.”
Mr Anies’s core campaign policies reflect an eagerness to regain the mantle of progressive moderniser among educated urbanites who once loved to hate him but in recent months have increasingly – grudgingly – begun to concede he may have best articulated a vision for the world’s fourth largest democracy. He has promised to: restore the power of the anti-corruption agency; conduct a feasibility review of President Joko Widodo’s capital city project; introduce public daycare facilities, paternity leave and renewable energy incentives; and position Indonesia, an international underperformer, as a balancing force between the global north and south.
Still, the reform narrative is a brave one given the mass popularity of Mr Joko, who is spending down his political capital amid accusations he is abusing his position to secure electoral victory for his Defence Minister and his eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Prabowo’s running mate.
In a campaign car packed with clothes and snacks, Mr Anies said between a hectic schedule of events he wanted “to see more balance” in Indonesia’s foreign trade and investment arena, which is heavily dominated by China.
“I would like to engage other major countries, to have more co-operation, especially in the economic area,” he said. “That’s why Australia is important. That’s why Europe and North America are important as well as Japan and Korea.”
He cited an Indonesian business principle which loosely translates as “enlarging the small without downsizing the big”.
“If in the past we have had large portions of co-operation with China I don’t think that needs to be reduced, but we need to increase co-operation with others,” he said. “We are Australia’s 13th largest trading partner. We need to be top 10, or top five. By doing that, it will help create balance which is in Indonesia’s interests.”
Mr Anies said he was committed to improving environmental and labour practices within Indonesia’s Chinese-dominated nickel mining and processing sector, which has flooded the global market since Mr Joko imposed a raw nickel export ban in 2020.
The market distortion caused by Indonesia’s defiance of WTO rules has driven down global prices, forcing the closure last week of three West Australian nickel mines unable to compete because of their obligation to adhere to far stricter environmental standards.
“We want to add value to our raw products – not just nickel but in other sectors like agriculture – but we need to do it in a more environmentally-friendly way,” he said. “In the past few months we’ve seen massive accidents (in nickel mines) and the uncovering of some practices that were previously under the radar. We would like to address that.”
But, he added, Australia must also meet its responsibilities as co-convener of the Bali process and help find solutions to the region’s growing Rohingya refugee problem – one of a list of neighbourhood irritants he said could have benefited from stronger Indonesian leadership.
Two weeks out from elections, most credible polls place Mr Anies a distant second to Mr Prabowo, a former son-in-law of late Indonesian autocrat Suharto and a Special Forces commander whose unit was accused of human rights abuses in East Timor and Indonesian democracy activist disappearances during the last days of the New Order regime. He denies the allegations.
Affable former central governor Ganjar Pranowo, backed by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle which once supported Mr Joko, is running third. Yet Mr Prabowo’s figures remain short of the 50 per cent plus one of votes required to avoid a June 26 election run-off with his closest rival – a scenario Mr Anies calculates is his only chance of success.
With his own campaign running on fumes thanks to the Team Prabowo juggernaut, he is having to employ every tool in his threadbare arsenal to keep his rival from a first-round victory.
In recent days that has included election fatwahs from west Java clerics, and endorsements from convicted Islamic militant Abu Bakar Bashir and Riziek Shihab whose now-banned vigilante Islamic Defenders’ Front was a key instigator of the 2016 rallies.
It is a risky ploy, and particularly so given any hope of victory depends on reconciling with Indonesia’s moderate majority.
Additional reporting: Dian Septiari
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