When Indonesian President Joko Widodo joined other world leaders in offering US President-elect Joe Biden his congratulations on social media, he wrote that he looked forward to strengthening the cooperation between the two countries on “the economy, democracy and multilateralism”.
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Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, in trademark Javanese fashion of being indirect and employing euphemisms, put his greatest concern last.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, has watched warily as Washington under President Donald Trump has isolated itself by pulling out of multilateral agreements hammered out by his predecessor, notably the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Paris Climate Agreement, to which Indonesia is a signatory. Indonesia hopes to join the 11-country TPP, which came to life as the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership, at a future date.
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Trump makes first public appearance since losing US presidential election to join Veterans Day event
Trump makes first public appearance since losing US presidential election to join Veterans Day event
Like the rest of the world, Indonesians followed the US presidential election with keen interest. When Trump prematurely declared he had won re-election and tried to undermine the electoral process by alleging “fraud” on national television, Indonesians experienced a sense of déjà vu.
Back in 2014, Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, unfazed by the vote counting which looked increasingly unfavourable to him, claimed victory on national television. When the Electoral Commission declared against him, he made the accusation that the election had been rigged and threatened chaos in the streets. On social media, numerous people made comparisons of both men.
Similarly, the scenes of shops and businesses in Washington having their facades boarded up ahead of the election in anticipation of riots were all too familiar. Indonesia regularly bears witness to its politics ruled by primordial sentiments such as religion and race rather than reason and the cult of personality trumping – excuse the pun – policies, occasionally marred by mob rule.
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While educated Indonesians at times feel embarrassed about the quality of their volatile democracy, this year’s US election has been a wake-up call to show the extent of shenanigans that can take place in supposedly mature democracies.
