Leader

Too bad there was little media time given Indonesian president Joko Widodo when he came to town last month. He might have shared with us much wisdom about leading emerging economies at this time.

Only a few months since he accessed power, “Jokowi” (as he is fondly referred to by his countrymen) is now considered a rising regional leader. Soft-spoken and given to chatting with ordinary people in the streets, Jokowi does not readily betray the strong leadership he provides his nation of over 200 million.

Jokowi, to begin with, breaks from the mold of former Indonesian political leaders. He does not belong to the wealthy political aristocracy that threatened to monopolize power even after the democratization of the post-Suharto period.

Jokowi was born in the riverside slums of the city of Solo, close to Jakarta. He was engaged in the furniture business before entering politics, running to be mayor of Solo. After that, his political career moved with meteoric speed.

After a term as mayor of Solo, he was elected governor of the Jakarta region. He quickly moved to improve mass transport in the traffic-choked metropolis. He quickly executed plans to build a light rail and subway system for Jakarta.

As governor, he was often found wading the flooded streets, trying find solution to the problems besetting residents. Every day, he was constantly inspecting projects, seeing they were done on time. He was in constant touch with the man in the street and, in those constant inspection trips, clearly understood what the people expected and what needed to be done.

Jokowi spent only three years as Jakarta governor — less time that it has so far taken for the DOTC to figure out what to do with the MRT-3 system. That is less time it has taken to decide on the private sector proposal to link the north and south expressways. Surely less time than what it has taken to grapple with the crumbling infrastructure at the NAIA.

In only three years, Jokowi had an impact on Jakarta. It is now a more orderly city. The man did not waste time blaming his predecessors in office or delivering stupid speeches. This man worked like a whirlwind.

After only three years as Jakarta governor, the Indonesian people decided they wanted him to be their president.

When he ran for Indonesia’s most powerful office, the entire political establishment it seemed was ranged against this upstart from the slums of Solo. His main rival for the post was the candidate fielded by Golkar, the grand old party that dominated Indonesian politics for decades.

Golkar is not some sloppy party of mediocrities like the Liberal Party here. It is a deeply entrenched party with loyal supporters, a deep pool of talent and a wide array of political influentials. It is a party with a history, a party with a profound institutional memory. But it could not win against a man with a brief political history but a clear view of what needed to be done in this large and sometimes unwieldy nation.  

Jokowi did not disappoint those who invested grand hopes in his leadership.

As soon as he assumed the presidency, he outlined a breathtaking infrastructure program to bring his trillion-dollar economy to the 21st century. He emphasized modernizing the ports and the airports, the logistical system that will weave together an archipelagic economy with many more times the number of islands than we have.

How will this ambitious infra program be funded?

To begin with, Jokowi withdrew the 30 percent subsidy the state paid for fuel to keep the people happy but poor. He went before his people and told them the facts. Subsidies will not build the bridges, ports and airports the country needed. His people understood. Jokowi was confident they would.

Despite the withdrawal of the hefty fuel subsidies, there were no noisy protests in the streets. There were no rambunctious debates in the parliament. It helped, of course, that the withdrawal of subsidies coincided with the drop in oil prices over the past few months. But it was nevertheless a move that required adept statesmanship, a strong political will and the willingness of the people to accept it.

Jokowi sent out the Indonesian coast guard to apprehend poachers. The crews of vessels found poaching were unloaded and their ships sunk.

The measures might seem draconian. But Jokowi understood that million of his countrymen relied on municipal fishing. Their fragile subsistence could be ruined in a day by a trawling fleet poaching on municipal fishing grounds.

The message was clear. The Indonesian state stood by its small fishermen. That message resonated well.

Australia is currently pressuring Jakarta because some of its nationals were due to be executed for drug offenses. In a recent interview, Jokowi made it clear that if the courts rule for capital punishment, he was not about to mitigate those harsh sentences.

The lives of thousands of Indonesians are ruined each day by the proliferation of illegal drugs. The new Indonesian president will not allow this plague to continue.

This early in his presidency, Indonesia’s neighbors have understood Jokowi is a force to contend with. The slight, smiling man who now sits as president of a large nation demonstrated a clear quality of leadership that even his erstwhile domestic rivals grudgingly accept.

The man who rides his bicycle casually through Jakarta’s streets to listen to his people and who, every morning, is out inspecting projects is also a leader with tremendous political will and a firm grasp of management principles.

We can only look over the fence with great envy as we observe Indonesia benefit from the sort of leadership we wish we also had.