The death of democracy?

But since then Jokowi’s lead has been eroded by his poor TV performances, a hesitant delivery and claims that he’s really Megawati’s puppet.  Most telling is that his style of resolving problems through dialogue – the qualities that so endeared him to the Jakarta reformers - are, ironically, counting against him in the villages.

Presidents are supposed to strut and give orders, then roar away in limos flanked by armed police, not sip coffee at roadside cafes asking workers for their ideas.  Ergo – Jokowi doesn’t look like the man for the job.

A relentless smear campaign also seems to be impacting. Like the Barack Obama birther movement it’s been claimed that Jokowi is the son of a Chinese, born in Singapore and (shock, horror) really a secret Christian.  At first he ignored these charges, a tactical error. Instead of settling the mud has got more turbulent.

Should Prabowo become president the progressives have only themselves to blame. Instead of starting afresh with new faces and a genuine reform party after the 2009 election that reinforced SBY’s position, they clustered in a loose fashion around Megawati’s Partai Demokrasi Indonesia - Perjuangan (PDI-P – the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle). 

Despite its grand title this is another fiefdom.  It’s run by the daughter of founding president Soekarno to keep the family name alive, a throwback to the old dark days and far from clean.

Megawati selected Jokowi only when it became clear she’d lose if she stood again. Other names were touted, mainly academics like former anti-Soeharto student leader Professor Anies Baswedan, 46, who has been trying to reform Indonesian education. But he’s not a household name.

 Jokowi was the only person outside the sleazy, incestuous corruption-ridden Jakarta military / political scene who was known from Aceh to Papua.  He may not be the smartest card in the pack, but his face was familiar.

And in Indonesian politics, personalities trump policies.