As obscure as it is, courses of events in Indonesia often shake the world. The 1945-49 revolution that saw the nation founded made colonialism look crap. The Cold War would have went in the Soviet Union's direction had Suharto and his buddies not killed off at least 500,000 'communists'. (The soldiers who instigated the massacre by killing six 'right-wing' generals in the name of the incumbent couldn't even have been communist, for Pete's sake!) News of the decimated city of Banda Aceh in late 2004 made Indonesia one of the largest aid recipients in the world and the Bali Bombings opened the world's eyes to the possibility of terrorism in East Asia.
Indonesia has been led by a fiery nationalist, a grinning dictator, a diminutive technocrat, an old scholar, a national icon, a failed reformist and a successful reformist (in that order). That successful reformist is former Surakartan mayor and Jakartan governor Joko Widodo, also known as Jokowi. He has been hailed by Fortune as one of the world's 50 greatest leaders and has been on the Muslim 500 for two years running. For some reason, he is a Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim, the highest order in Sweden, of all places. He was elected in 2014, with Jusuf Kalla and his approval ratings have skyrocketed since then. He has spread education, development and efficiency, building major toll roads in West New Guinea and orchestrating the creation of Jakarta's first true mass transit system, the latter of which incited cheering from the traffic-ridden city's inhabitants. This time with Muslim scholar Ma'ruf Amin, he is running for another five-year turn. His opponent? Prabowo Subianto.
Prabowo is one of the big Suhartoists right now, partly for the sake of relations with his ex-wife, no other than Suharto's daughter. He promises a return to the Suharto era, which could be said to be a benevolent dictatorship. He has forcefully given warnings to many politicians to do what he thinks is their best course, but was thankfully too much of a bother to listen to. Prabowo has been banned from entering the US on human rights violations grounds, but something tells me Ol' Donnie will do something to change that. He's already lost the 2014 election to Jokowi, but with a very narrow margin. He's shooting for it again with Jakarta Vice-Governor Sandiaga Uno, but Jokowi's five-year credential-proving stint will make it much harder for him. However, there are many people in poverty which have taken Jokowi's benefits longer to reach that want change.
So who do you think shall it be? The reformist or the absolutist? (I will release the results on 17th April at the earliest, 1st May at the latest.)
Indonesia has been led by a fiery nationalist, a grinning dictator, a diminutive technocrat, an old scholar, a national icon, a failed reformist and a successful reformist (in that order). That successful reformist is former Surakartan mayor and Jakartan governor Joko Widodo, also known as Jokowi. He has been hailed by Fortune as one of the world's 50 greatest leaders and has been on the Muslim 500 for two years running. For some reason, he is a Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim, the highest order in Sweden, of all places. He was elected in 2014, with Jusuf Kalla and his approval ratings have skyrocketed since then. He has spread education, development and efficiency, building major toll roads in West New Guinea and orchestrating the creation of Jakarta's first true mass transit system, the latter of which incited cheering from the traffic-ridden city's inhabitants. This time with Muslim scholar Ma'ruf Amin, he is running for another five-year turn. His opponent? Prabowo Subianto.
Prabowo is one of the big Suhartoists right now, partly for the sake of relations with his ex-wife, no other than Suharto's daughter. He promises a return to the Suharto era, which could be said to be a benevolent dictatorship. He has forcefully given warnings to many politicians to do what he thinks is their best course, but was thankfully too much of a bother to listen to. Prabowo has been banned from entering the US on human rights violations grounds, but something tells me Ol' Donnie will do something to change that. He's already lost the 2014 election to Jokowi, but with a very narrow margin. He's shooting for it again with Jakarta Vice-Governor Sandiaga Uno, but Jokowi's five-year credential-proving stint will make it much harder for him. However, there are many people in poverty which have taken Jokowi's benefits longer to reach that want change.
So who do you think shall it be? The reformist or the absolutist? (I will release the results on 17th April at the earliest, 1st May at the latest.)
So that leaves PAN and PBB. The reason I picked PBB was because wiki said that they want an Islamic way of life for Indonesia. Then again so does PAN and wiki saying that PAN is moderate Islamist doesn't necessarily mean they're munaafiqoon.