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EMPTY PROMISES
AND VANISHED HOPES
How Jokowi is Losing his Base of Supporters
Dessy Aipipidely, Ekawati
INDEPENDENT OBSERVER
Jakarta – A “leader” is synony-
mous with “credibility” and “trustwor-
thiness”. In other words, a person’s
words matching their deeds. Howev-
er, if there is no consistency between
words and actualities, it will become
a problem. Within 4 years of Joko
Widodo’s leadership, many policies
have not been consistent. Further-
more, many of Jokowi-JK’s campaign
promises turned out to be only unre-
alized rhetoric. To look back: during
the 2014 presidential campaign, Jo-
kowi boasted that he would strive to
halt imports. “We need to dare to stop
food imports – stop rice imports, meat
imports, soy imports, vegetable im-
ports, fish imports. We actually have
everything!” he stated at the time. 4
years later, after he has led Indone-
sia, Jokowi admits that the country’s
biggest problem is that its imports are
bigger than exports.
Another campaign promise Jokowi
made was to free Indonesia from debt.
“We need to use the State’s Budget
efficiently and effectively. There is no
need for us to get into debt,” he stat-
ed at City Hall in 2014. But now, the
Ministry of Finance’s recently-pub-
lished data on Government debt
at the end of 2018 show that we
owe Rp 4,418 trillion. The data shows
that within 4 years Government Joko
Widodo (Jokowi), Government debt
increased Rp 1,809 trillion. The total
of Jokowi Government’s debt within
these 4 years is bigger than the entire
debt increased over 10 years (2004-
2014) of the Susilo Bambang Yudhoy-
ono (SBY) Government at Rp 1,309
Jokowi makes
policies for the
sake of image-
building, so that
when the public
complains
about them, he
retracts
Said Didu
Former Secretary
of the Minister
of State-owned
Enterprises
trillion. Economist Faisal Basri
even went so far to state that Gov-
ernment debt in President Jokowi’s
era increased 69%.
Another interesting campaign
promise is that Jokowi wanted
ministers to be free from political
party affiliation and to hold no dou-
ble positions. Unfortunately, words
only remained just that: words. In
the event, President Joko Widodo
allowed Airlangga Hartarto to dou-
ble his position as Minister of In-
dustry and General Chairman of the
Functional Group (Golongan Karya
– “Golkar”) Party. Jokowi made the
excuse that the current cabinet’s
tenure remains only one year, and
therefore such a late change in the
term. “We know that Pak Airlangga
is inside, he is already a minister.
Only one year left, we are simply
being practical. If we put somebody
new in his place, it would take him
or her six months to master things;
if he or she is slow, it will take at
least a year,” Jokowi stated after ap-
pointing new ministers and officials
after the third cabinet reshuffle at the
Presidential Palace on Wednesday, 17
January 2018.
During his campaigns, Jokowi
said that he would not practice trans-
actional politics if he became elected
as President. There will be no more
“distribution of seats”. “A great nation
must be built together – but not by
negotiating over ministerial seats,”
stated Jokowi on Monday 31 March
2014. However, when he appointed
his ministers in 2014, in fact 15 of
them originated from political parties.
Even after cabinet reshuffle, there are
still 16 ministers originating from po-
litical parties.
That was a low blow.
Another false hope is related to
national car production. During his
campaigns, Jokowi made use of pub-
lic psychology to affect the people’s
opinion. He boasted about how Es-
emka car will be a national car that
Indonesia can be proud of. “How
many years are we independent al-
ready? We have succeeded in building
our own plane, how come we cannot
build our own car? Let’s just be logi-
cal here,” he said at the time.
Unfortunately, the promise re-
mains just an empty promise. After
4 years in power and no Esemka
in sight, Jokowi was asked about
it. Here is his terse reply: “Well, we
should leave to the industry whether
they want to produce it or not, that is
simply no longer our business. How
come the president should make his
own factory? Create his own Esemka
car lines? Get real, what are you say-
ing?” Jokowi said at the 2018 Trade
Expo Indonesia at ICE BSD, South
The signature of
mediocrity is chronic
inconsistency.
James C.Collins, born in Colorado U.S. Jan 25, 1958, is a graduate of Stan-
ford School of Business, is an American author and lecturer in the subject of
company sustainability and growth. He is author to many books, one of them
renowned book is “Good to Great.”
Tangerang, on Wednesday 24 Octo-
ber 2018.
Of his many campaign promises,
one of Jokowi’s most extravagant
promise is that Indonesia must buy
back Indosat shares. This way, Indo-
nesia can operate unmanned aircraft
using Indonesia’s own satellite, and
not lease time on other countries’
satellites. “In the future, there is
only one key: we need to buy back,
to take back Indosat shares,” Jokowi
said in the Presidential Candidate at
Holiday Inn Hotel, Kemayoran, Tan-
jung Priok, North Jakarta Utara, on
Sunday 22 June 2014. He said that
the sale and purchase agreement
made during Megawati Soekarnopu-
tri’s Government in 2002 contains a
clause that the Indonesian Govern-
ment can buy back the shares; it
is just the Indonesian Government
simply has not bought them yet. After
that brief mention during the debate,
Jokowi has never alluded to any plan
to buy back Indosat again.
Campaign promises are not the
only thing that remain unrealized.
When he started to lead Indonesia
back in 2015, Jokowi guaranteed
that Indonesia’s economy will start
to skyrocket. “We’ll start to rise
slightly in September, October. Well,
in November it will get to be like this
(pointing high upwards),” Jokowi
stated at Bogor Palace on Wednesday,
5 August 2015. Unfortunately, this
is just wishful thinking on Jokowi’s
part. Indonesia’s economy keeps on
falling under his leadership, as indi-
cated by the continued drop of the
Rupiah exchange rate against the
US dollar. In fact, the Rupiah went to
the low level of Rp 15,233 per USD in
INDEPENDENT OBSERVER
METROPOLITAN
India’s 70th Republic Day
- James C.Collins The eternal friendship between India
and Indonesia
ECONOMY BUSINESS
Most government debt used to
pay interest
I
YUD
AH
GW
UN
AG
October 2018.
Other than many unfulfilled
promises and failed plans in leading
Indonesia, Jokowi is also frequently
inconsistent in his policy-making:
the latest is his decision to release
convicted terrorist brain Ustadz Abu
Bakar Ba’asyir. He stated that the
release was granted because of hu-
manitarian reasons. A mere four days
after the announcement was made,
Jokowi cancelled this policy. “Well,
this is a conditional release and we
must satisfy those conditions. There
is no need for me to break the condi-
tions, don’t you agree? For example,
loyalty to the NKRI, loyalty to Pancas-
ila, that’s the absolute basic require-
ment. That’s absolutely principal,”
stated Jokowi to journalists on Sun-
day, 22 January 2019.
For the Sake of Image-Building
Said Didu, former Secretary of
the Minister of State-owned Enter-
prises (Badan Usaha Milik Negara
– “BUMN”) concludes that President
Jokowi acts as if it is the country and
nation that need him, not Jokowi
who needs the nation. Jokowi makes
policies for the sake of image-build-
ing, so that when the public com-
plains about them, he retracts. “For
example, the policy of raising petro-
leum fuel prices was later retracted
when the public criticized it. His main
concern is his image, not how the
country can be advanced with a good
system and how the country will be
developed in the future. The danger
is that not a few of these image-build-
ing actions are based on dishonesty.
For example, the Esemka car intro-
duced by President Jokowi, I would
FRIDAY,
FEBRUARY 1-7, 2019
www.observerid.com
[ p.03 ]
[ p.09 ]
say that’s a monumental lie. Many of
his words are inconsistent, such as
when he said he would not increase
imports but in fact there has actual-
ly been a major increase of imports;
he claimed he would not take on new
debt, but it turns out that there is a
major increase in foreign obligations.
I think that his attitude as if the
country, the nation, and the people
need him, combined with his intent
on image-building, without caring
whether the image is based on truth
or dishonesty, and this causes his in-
consistency,” Said Didu stated.
Among President Jokowi’s incon-
sistent policy-making moves, the
ones that affect the people most are
policies relating to debt and imports.
Debt is taken on for the sake of im-
age-building. He does not care if it is
economically feasible or not, as long
as it props up his image. These im-
age-building projects will burden fu-
ture Governments. The Palembang
LRT project, airport railway project,
toll roads, Jakarta LRT, and the
ships for the marine toll project are
all extremely costly, and all funded by
loans. The next Government will have
to suffer from stagnant image-build-
ing projects, because these proj-
ects’ viability is completely ignored.
What matters is that these projects
are completed, no matter if they are
hardly used by the people or if the
costs are so high that it is impossible
to repay the debts used to fund them.
Communications Pattern
President Jokowi communicates
in such a way as if to show that it
is not a problem if he was dishon-
est. He never corrects anything he