by Not long ago, the eldest son of President Joko Widodo of Indonesia ran a catering business and a chain of dessert shops. He is now the symbol of a budding political dynasty and the beneficiary of family maneuvers.
Aided by a high court ruling headed by his uncle, the president’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, has emerged as the leading candidate for vice president in next month’s national elections. If his candidacy wins, he would become the youngest vice president in Indonesian history.
The machinations have unsettled critics, who warn that Joko is acting to undermine democratic reforms that were adopted after decades of dictatorship and that helped Joko himself win the presidency in 2014.
Three candidates are running to succeed Joko in Indonesia’s Feb. 14 election, including a former general who is now defense minister, Prabowo Subianto. Prabowo, long accused of human rights abuses, lost the last two elections to Joko.
But this time, the president, widely known as “Jokowi,” is lending his mark to the former general, in the form of his son as his running mate. Polls indicate that the merger of the two political families seems to give his formula an advantage.
“It is clear that Jokowi is building a political dynasty,” said Yoes C. Kenawas, a researcher at Atma Jaya University in Jakarta. Joko’s goal, he said, is to prepare his son to run for president in 2029. Serving under Prabowo would be a “learning period.”
“Because in the end the goal is president,” he said, “not vice president.”
Joko, a former furniture maker, rose from city mayor to governor and eventually president of the world’s third-largest democracy without having any family connections. After winning his first term, he said he would become president “It doesn’t mean channeling power toward my children..”
But after Joko won his second and final five-year term in 2019, his family members embarked on their own political careers. In 2020, Gibran was elected mayor of Solo, and Mr. Joko’s son-in-law, Muhammad Bobby Afif Nasution, was elected mayor of Medan.
In September, the president’s youngest son, Kaesang Pangarep, 28, joined the Indonesian Solidarity Party. Two days later, he was named president. The party is widely seen as a post-presidential vehicle for Joko that he can use to help cement his legacy as a leader who sought to modernize the country with new toll roads, ports and airports.
As party chief, Mr. Kaesang has drawn attention carrying a teddy bear to official meetings. He told reporters that the bear was a gift from his wife.
For his part, Gibran was only able to run for vice president because his uncle and the Constitutional Court intervened in October, allowing candidates under 40 to run for president or vice president if they had already been elected to the position. The deciding vote in the 5-4 ruling was Chief Justice Anwar Usman, who had been appointed to the court by Mr. Joko and later married the president’s sister.
An ethics panel quickly removed Mr. Anwar as chief justice for his “serious violation” of the court’s ethics code, but the decision still stands. Anwar denies any wrongdoing.
Days later, Prabowo (who was the son-in-law of ousted dictator Suharto) chose Gibran as his running mate in the apparent hope that the president’s popularity would rub off on his campaign. Polls suggest the ticket has a lead over the two other candidates running to succeed Joko in next month’s election, but that a second round is likely to be held in June.
Joko deflected criticism of the political move by joking that it was like Korean dramas popular in Indonesia.
“We’ve been given too many dramas lately, too many Korean dramas, too many soap operas,” he told party supporters in November, without mentioning his own family’s role in theater.
But many analysts accuse Joko of orchestrating such a spectacle behind the scenes for years, seeking to extend his influence beyond the end of his presidency.
“This is not a drama,” said Titi Anggraini, a professor at the University of Indonesia. “This was planned engineering.”
Ian Wilson, a senior lecturer at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, agreed. “He will come across as distant because that is his political style, but he is very much behind it,” he said.
Wilson, who has long studied Indonesia, describes Joko’s maneuvers as part of an anti-democratic trend adopted by many Indonesian politicians. Among them is Prabowo, who once hoped to succeed his father-in-law and for decades was banned from entering the United States because of his history of human rights abuses. Known for his short temper, he has spent decades trying to remake himself as a father figure.
“I don’t see Jokowi as a democrat at all,” Wilson said. “Jokowi has those autocratic tendencies, just like Prabowo.”
Anwar, a judge at the Constitutional Court, married into the president’s family in 2020. He had met the president’s sister, Idayati, after joining the court in 2018. Both had been widowed.
At the time, legal experts warned of future conflicts of interest. Some urged the chief justice to resign from the court or at least to recuse himself from cases involving his new brother-in-law. But Anwar continued to play a central role in the ruling that helped his nephew.
“That decision was very important because it changed the rules of the game of the electoral system,” said Jimly Asshiddiqie, president of the court’s Honorary Council, which enforces its code of ethics.
After investigating how the court reached its decision, the council removed Mr. Anwar as chief justice and censured the other eight judges for allowing him to participate in the case. The council allowed Anwar to remain a judge but prohibited him from participating in electoral matters.
“We have a big problem with ethical culture,” said Jimly, former president of the Constitutional Court. “Most public officials don’t have the ethical sense that conflict of interest is wrong.”
Anwar denies doing anything inappropriate and maintains that the ethics decision was not based on facts or the law. “My dignity as a career judge for almost 40 years has been destroyed by a very vile and cruel slander” he told reporters in November.
Before the ruling, Gibran dismissed rumors that he would run for vice president, saying he was unqualified after serving less than three years as mayor.
“I’m still very new,” he said. in a television interview in July. “There is still a lot I have to learn. From mayor to vice president is too big a jump.”
Gibran’s campaign declined interview requests.
In Solo, a city of about 550,000 people, some voters are unimpressed by Gibran’s bid for higher office. Although they consider his performance as mayor satisfactory, they question his willingness to advance.
“Everyone has to start from the bottom to gain experience and maturity,” said Paryani, 43, who sells bananas in the busy Pasar Gede market. “It’s about managing a country, not just a city.”
And in Jakarta, a first-time voter, Neiva Kayla Hamzah, 17, said she was concerned that the president’s son would use “his privilege” to enter the race. Becoming a candidate after her uncle broke the rules calls into question what kind of vice president Gibran would be, she said.
“It shows that he will do whatever it takes,” he said, “and he will do anything to benefit himself.”
This article was produced with support from the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Round Earth Media program.
