CAN THIS ODD COUPLE SURVIVE?
Before debating with
Democrat VP candidate Tim Walz, the Republican nominee JD Vance said the contestants’ views matter little because voters go for the
top of the ticket, not the bottom.
That may be right in the
US, though not in Indonesia.
This is anecdotal but
when contacts blushingly admit to voting for cashiered former general and
alleged human rights abuser Prabowo Subianto, they reason by adding they wanted
Gibran Rakabuming.
Although the Constitution
says VPs are the spare tyre, in reality they’ve been proxies for a voter
bloc. The current VP Ma’ruf Amin, 81,
was an esteemed Muslim cleric selected as a crutch when in 2019 President Joko ‘Jokowi’
Widodo’s advisors detected a religious limp.
This year the age has
dropped. In the February poll the wrinkle-free 37-year-old eldest son of once
hyper-popular Jokowi became the bait to snare new gen voters the oldies can’t understand. He spoke prokem (Javanese street slang)
looked fresh, seemed cool.
In brief, someone young
electors found relatable.
Prabowo, the plump pensioner
atop the ticket is already on borrowed time, five years beyond the average
life expectancy for Indonesian men.
During the campaign he tried
to appeal to teens with hair dye, silly dances and adopting a cuddly cartoon
character; it looked forced, flawed and squirmingly embarrassing.
Odd couples can sometimes
thrive, though difficulties expand when each party comes from a different
background.
Gibran, a small-town
mayor, said little during the campaign, as the label ‘son of Jokowi’ was
enough. Voters backed him not for his achievements but as a drop site for their
expectations. A prime prayer from the
electorate has been for politics without
corruption.
A tough call: Indonesia
ranks 89 out of 180 countries in Transparency International's Corruption
Perception Index. One estimate reckons
it’ll take a century of reform before the Republic sheds the curse, and that’s
going to need brave and committed leaders. They’ve yet to appear.
Over half the 205 million
registered
electors this year were millennials (born in the 1990s) and
Gen Zs (created this century).
First time voters knew little
of the autocratic Orde Baru (New Order) administration of the late
President Soeharto – 32 years of repression. But his one-time son-in-law
Prabowo was happily embedded in that era and appears to want it returned.
Gibran couldn’t muster a backstory
in the pesantren - Islamic boarding schools that are supposed to instil
morality - or the military that reckons it’s the custodian of national duty. Instead,
like a middle-class lad, he’d been schooled in Singapore learning business
management and English.
Dad suggested he take
over flogging furniture – but the scion wanted to sit on his own stool. His Chilli Pari catering service rapidly
garnered more than AUD 2.2 million, exceeding the value of Papa’s trade.
Perhaps this displays
great business acumen though the mean-spirited suggested he profited by
association – a nepo
baby.
When Jokowi won the 2014 election, family
photos showed Gibran looking surly, more like a petulant teen than a mid-20s
adult. At the time he
professed disinterest in politics.
When Gibran did venture a
public opinion he got his lips burned by suggesting pregnant women swig sulphuric
acid
to prevent stunted babies. He meant
folic acid.
We know he
likes soccer (so does almost every man in Indonesia)
and supports Barcelona – but that's the limit of the profundities he’ll share.
Like most Indonesians Jokowi’s
son played with social media, allegedly using the alias Fufufafa. Long
before he became VP-in-waiting, the account was posting unfavourable comments
about his Dad’s rival.
The slanders from
Prabowo’s camp included claims that Jokowi was secretly a Christian and his
father a Communist.
Fufufafa hit back,
reportedly writing: "Soldiers
are dismissed, divorced, children are waving, supporters are radical, coalition
parties do not support all out."
This cryptic sentence is supposed to refer to Prabowo’s past.
He was cashiered in 1998
and divorced from Soeharto’s daughter Titiek the same year. Their only son Didit Hediprasetyo, 40, is a
fashion designer in Europe and whispered to be gay. Populist Indonesian politicians have been urging
for laws
against homosexuality.
Prabowo has stayed single
and seems indifferent to women so there’s no First Lady – a great
disappointment in a culture where family loves and feuds are essentials in
everyday chat.
By contrast Gibran
married local Catholic Selvi Ananda who renounced her faith to marry. They have two kids. Attempts by your correspondent to interview
the family have been ignored.
The other confusing comments
in the online posting are interpreted as references to Prabowo getting Islamic
groups to back his earlier campaigns; that support wasn’t sought this year.
Gibran has appeared
to deny ownership of the Fufufafa account and tried to
flick away the controversy, but the Twittersphere is not so simply dusted. When Soeharto was boss public critics of the
government feared a door-kick by police or army boots.
Not so easy now when the anonymous
publishers of scuttlebutt thrive on social media. So Prabowo has dashed back to his mentor's
policies by scrapping Jokowi’s impromptu media conferences.
There'll be occasional
formal events where the prez will select approved questions from chosen reps of
partisan publishers.
Prabowo’s spokesperson
Hasan Nasbi explained
the new system is part of “a greater scheme to limit access provided to
journalists ,,, and that the president-elect would only make official
statements when necessary.
"For instance, if
the President is on a visit to a wet market and he is subjected to questions
from reporters, he may not be ready with an answer. We don't want to create
confusion."
Hasan also said his boss
would need to prepare responses and that he’d only “speak to the press in
routine press briefings and only on matters that have been confirmed.”
Maybe the VP is happy
with this deal because he’s disclosed little and seems to have an ideology of
the same magnitude. Easier to tag along
for the fame and business boost and hope the old fella doesn’t cark it in the
next five years.
There’s no marshal’s
baton in this neophyte’s knapsack. Nor
any spray can of charisma.
He once stood up to his gentle
Dad. Can he do the same with his fearsome
boss? Will he dare?
First published in Pearls & Irritations, 10 September 2024: https://johnmenadue.com/can-this-odd-couple-survive/
