Jokowi’s First Term: An Assessment
from Asia Unbound

Jokowi’s First Term: An Assessment

Indonesia's president and presidential candidate for the next election Joko Widodo gestures as he gives a speech during a campaign rally in Solo, Indonesia, on April 9, 2019.
Indonesia's president and presidential candidate for the next election Joko Widodo gestures as he gives a speech during a campaign rally in Solo, Indonesia, on April 9, 2019. Willy Kurniawan/Reuters

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This week, Indonesians will go to the polls in the country’s presidential elections. Incumbent Joko Widodo, or Jokowi, remains a strong favorite, against challenger Prabowo Subianto. Most surveys show Jokowi with a wide lead, although Prabowo’s campaign appears to be picking up some steam in its final days.


Still, even if Jokowi is re-elected, he would assume a second term in a political environment in which the vast hopes for his presidency, which surged before his first election in 2014 and early in his first term, have diminished. Jokowi has made some progress in economic reform and combating graft, but overall his record as president has been mixed at best. For more of an assessment of Jokowi’s first term, see my new piece for World Politics Review.

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Southeast Asia

Indonesia

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