Indonesia’s Democratic Advance An expected Widodo win spurns the Muslim nation’s Islamists.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/indonesias-democratic-advance-11555630087
Indonesia faced an election choice Wednesday between incumbent President Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto, a former general supported by radical Islamist groups. Preliminary results project a Widodo win, which is good news for the world’s largest Muslim democracy.
Unofficial “quick count” numbers from at least six pollsters show Mr. Widodo leading by nearly 10 percentage points in a popular vote which directly elects the president. The incumbent declared victory but cautioned supporters to wait for official results to be released in coming weeks. Mr. Subianto disputes the polls, but quick counts proved accurate when Mr. Subianto lost to Mr. Widodo in 2014. The former general’s spokesman says he doesn’t want violence over the election result, and voters should hold him to it.
Should the results hold, Indonesians have avoided a dangerous turn. Mr. Subianto, once the son-in-law and potential successor of former dictator Suharto, was expelled in 1998 from his special forces command after allegedly leading bloody crackdowns against democracy activists. On the 2014 campaign trail, he said that direct elections are “not in accordance with our own culture.”
He also has ties to radical Islam, which has been gaining ground in the archipelago. The leader of hardline Islamist group Islamic Defenders Front spoke on video at a Subianto campaign rally last week, while another radical group banned in 2017 also expressed support for the former general.
Mr. Widodo, a Muslim and soft-spoken Jakarta outsider hailed for his common touch, has been accused by radical groups of being anti-Muslim. That may be why he chose as his running mate Ma’ruf Amin, a conservative Islamic cleric who supported blasphemy charges against a Christian ex-governor of Jakarta who made an offhand comment about the Quran in 2016.
Indonesians need a leader who resists radicals with conviction, and Mr. Widodo too often equivocates. Still, the mild-mannered president represents the best chance for political stability and economic progress in the country.
There’s plenty to do. Mr. Widodo has slashed red tape for businesses and cut a wasteful fuel subsidy to fund highways and ports across Indonesia’s 18,000 islands, though the infrastructure needs remain large. Protectionist measures such as local-content requirements and myriad non-tariff trade barriers deter foreign investment. Mr. Widodo won’t achieve his 7% growth pledge without further reform.
A pluralist, democratic Indonesia has long been a counterpoint to Islamist calls for a caliphate and Shariah law. Mr. Widodo deserves credit for continuing this example.
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