Governor Joko Widodo, also known as Jokowi, is surrounded by residents during a visit to inspect the aftermath of a fire in a slum fire area in west Jakarta, recently. Reuters pic
Reflections on the Jokowi phenomenon - The political phenomenon that is Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo (or Jokowi to most Indonesians) is of wide interest, not just to Indonesians, but to the wider region amidst growing speculation he will eventually throw his hat into the country's presidential electoral ring next year and may very well be the country's new president before the coming year is out.
Optimists will see in this a reaffirmation of the best of Indonesia's budding democracy, where a small-city mayor can end up as president of the sprawling archipelago in so short a time.
It may remind Indonesians of one Barack Obama, who was an obscure American senator one day and president the next.
But reality may really be more down to earth. The Jokowi phenomenon probably tells more of ordinary Indonesians' growing disenchantment with the entire Indonesian ruling class brought in as a result of the post-Suharto reformasi movement barely fifteen years ago.
While the Indonesian economy soon bounced back after the depths it sunk during the Asian financial crisis, the advent of democracy has not brought about any perceptible change in the country's endemic corruption.
Almost despite an aggressive and independent anti-corruption agency doing what its best and netting one high-profile official after another for corrupt practices, all those efforts can seem almost futile in making any real dent to a deeply-ingrained culture of public corruption.
Added to that, public infrastructure bursting at the seams, unions seemingly emboldened each day to press ever higher wage demands and hubristic officials spewing populist and nationalistic economic themes against foreign investors, it is small wonder that the post-reformasi economic bubble now appears all but burst once again.
The Indonesian public mood is therefore understandably somewhat dark right now, even if Indonesians have not entirely lost their infatuation with their new-found democracy. All the major political parties, from the secular to the religious, ruling to opposition, are nevertheless reaping a harvest of popular discontent.
Into the breach rides Jokowi like the proverbial knight in shining armour, with the impish smile, humble in both demeanour and political style and with all the trappings of a rank outsider, although he is a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party (Struggle) headed by a former president, Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Making headway in the numerous intractable problems plaguing Jakarta will not be easy and in any case, will take time to become evident, even if any serious headway is actually attempted but Indonesians generally already like what they see of Jokowi going about his job as the high-profile governor of their capital city.
In that sense, Jokowi may actually be preceded in this region by another obscure politician with a thin public record catapulted virtually overnight into his nation's presidency: the Philippines' Benigno Aquino III.
In Aquino's case (as likely it will be in Jokowi's case), an electorate sick to the bone with perceptions of rampant corruption in public life handed the presidency overwhelmingly to the candidate who unambiguously promised to end the pervasive scourge.
Except that couching one's entire presidential campaign in a simple anti-corruption slogan as Aquino did might do wonders at the hustings but, as the Philippine president now finally must be finding out, is simplistic at best when it comes time to do serious governing.
Without actually realising it, Aquino wanted to usher in a democratic revolution in his country, something his presidential mother before him had the unique opportunity to mid-wife but let slip.
If there is a lesson in Aquino's current political troubles with his legislature and, rather more ominously, with the Filipino public, it is that tackling a political system as intrinsically corrupt as the Philippines, one requires a root-and-branch, system-wide reform that is nothing short of political revolution. Short of that, Aquino runs the real risk of being swallowed up by the system he set out thinking he can reform simply by the power of example and good intentions.
Wiser or more experienced leaders may have chosen to focus on less ambitious deliverables without shirking from tackling corruption as and when it surfaces.
Such as on making one's country even more attractive for investors and business generally in other ways in hopes that even faster economic advancement will empower a future generation to better fight corruption without having to upend an entire system.
One hopes Indonesia, newer to the ways of democracy than the Philippines, learns a thing or two from the other archipelago in this region because Indonesia's challenges are of a different order of magnitude altogether.
This article originally appeared in : Reflections on the Jokowi phenomenon | nst.com.my | 08 November 2013| last updated at 11:15PM
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