Menchik Interviewed on Indonesia’s Elections

Jeremy Menchik, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Fredrick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was interviewed for a recent article on this year’s elections in Indonesia. 

Menchik was interviewed for a May 1, 2019 article by the Asia Experts Forum. From the text of the article:

What makes this year’s presidential election in Indonesia unique and important in terms of the country’s consolidation of its young democracy?

This was an important election for all the wrong reasons. Jokowi’s first term has seen a downturn in the quality of Indonesian democracy including weakening of human rights, an increasing in the influence of Islamist movements, and stagnation in the campaign against corruption. So the election is important as an indicator of the country’s democratic deconsolidation.

Last year, President Joko Widodo chose Ma’ruf Amin as his running mate for the general election this April to pacify radical Islamic groups in the nation. However, in return, former supporters also accused Joko of selling himself out to ultra-conservative political elements. Do you think he will achieve a balance, or will his action ultimately backfire and hurt his chance of winning the election?

Jokowi has achieved a good balance in terms of gaining support from both Muslims and non-Muslim voters. The longer-term worry is what is going to happen when Ma’ruf Amin is in the vice presidential palace. Ma’ruf Amin has a history of marginalizing minorities and has been influential in the campaigns of exclusion and intolerance toward minority Muslims and local LGBTQ groups. He has shown no willingness or desire to change his former position of intolerance. I am worried that once he is in a position of great power, there will be serious negative consequences for religious tolerance in the country. So it’s not just the election that is important here; it is the aftermath of the election that I worry about. Ma’ruf Amin has said good things on the campaign trial, but longer term he has done the wrong things. I have no reason to believe he wouldn’t continue to do great harm to democracy and religious tolerance over the next five years.

In his 2014 campaign, Widodo had promised to raise GDP growth to 7 percent by the end of his first term. Until now, Indonesia’s growth is forecasted to be 5 percent. How would you assess Widodo’s performance in office for the past four years?

Indonesia has had strong and stable economic growth. That said, Jokowi has had much less success in other areas relating to policy. Specifically, he has been unable to significantly improve social welfare institutions. His policies on healthcare and the environment have been terrible, and Indonesia is a place where we are going to see the acute effects of climate change. Nor has his been seriously able to grapple with the problem of corruption or the respect for human rights.

Jokowi came to power as an outsider. He had advantages in terms of bringing fresh blood into Indonesian politics. But this has also been a disadvantage in terms of not being able to shift the distribution of power from behind the scenes. He has been relatively successful in managing the economy, but not as successful in areas like environment, social welfare, human rights and corruption.

Jeremy Menchik is Assistant Professor in the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. His first book, Islam and Democracy in Indonesia: Tolerance without Liberalism (Cambridge University Press, 2016) explains the meaning of tolerance to the world’s largest Islamic organizations and was the co-winner of the 2017 International Studies Association award for the best book on religion and international relations. His research has appeared in the academic journals Comparative Studies in Society and History, Comparative Politics, International Studies Review, Asian Studies Review, South East Asia Research, andPolitics and Religion. His recent research focuses on the politics of modern religious authority and the origins of the missionary impulse.