Fresh, independent faces on offer

Discussing presidential candidates before their formal candidacy fills the grey area between politics and gossip. Still it is a popular sport and sells media time, so people are always encouraged to speak up by the media.

We are more than two years away from our next presidential elections and one year away from the time of formal announcements. Yet, at this moment in time, we announce our very informal survey and report that we have three fresh candidates: Dahlan Iskan, Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

We do have slightly more experienced politicians and sound people such as Mahfud MD, Yenny Wahid and Anies Baswedan. Then of course we have seasoned politicians-cum-business people, people who made their fame and fortune through pragmatism: Aburizal Bakrie. Megawati Soekarnoputri (or stand-in), Prabowo Subianto and others.

We might face an erratic presidential election in 2014 because the ordinary person now has very little confidence in the political system. The president is often the object of ridicule, much of it with little basis other than President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has the knack of engaging in counterproductive public imaging. The House is an even less respected institution, regarded as a major source of corruption and cartel politics. The judiciary invites no trust due to their repeated shows of complicity in manipulative schemes of power and money.

Between the three of them, corruption is still the order of the day. No wonder politicians and political institutions are perceived as interest-driven for money and power. Many citizens switch off their political sensitivity while adding to their depression by watching politically controlled television news with heavy negative bias against their opposition. But there are an undefined number of potential voters who are beginning to realize that the way out of this despair is to identify fresh faces. New candidates who spark the imagination. In a climate of hopelessness, glimmers of promise can arouse real hope. They are people with currently rare qualities of jujur, tegas, mampu (honest, firm, capable).

Three such people are Dahlan Iskan, Jokowi and Sri Mulyani. Dahlan Iskan made his mark as a successful self-made man who built the Jawa Pos group into a media empire. He is a colorful individual known for forthrightness and can-do attitude. Based on his professional competence and personal audacity, he made a career jump from entrepreneur to technocrat by being recruited as CEO of PLN (the state power company). After just enough time to show a positive impact, he was moved to the broader post of state-owned enterprises minister, where he is now busy revamping the effectiveness of public corporations.

In the popular lexicon, Dahlan Iskan is a hero. Another hero in the public eye is Jokowi, mayor of Solo (Surakarta) in Central Java. While his scope of work is considerably smaller, his style and performance capture the public imagination. He uses his public position as a tool for municipal development rather than personal grandeur. Many doubted his talent when he first ran for public office from a profession as a dealer of home furniture and garden accessories.

But in his first year as mayor he already proved to be capable of progressive measures. He borrowed ideas from European cities that he made a point of visiting and studying in detail. He successfully gave Solo a brand as “Solo: The Spirit of Java”. His measures are quite real, notably the relocation of secondhand street vendors to open green space. This was done without friction.

Jokowi opened up schemes for investors to engage with public needs and opened up routine public interaction on local television stations. His public relations are excellent and Tempo magazine selected Joko Widodo as one of the Ten Top Public Figures of 2008. He has yet to make the quantum leap to the national stage but has already captured the public imagination. He is a hero.

The third name, Sri Mulyani, is more of a reluctant hero, growing through rigorous achievement rather than public relations. In fact, she jumped to national attention because of negative PR by her adversaries who control national news television and mass political parties. Her quiet competence as an economist and manager of Indonesia’s financial success has withstood severe attacks directed against her. Public reaction came to her rescue largely through social media and intellectuals, who later assembled a civil society group and a political party.

While Dahlan Iskan has a national base of recognition and Jokowi has a solid municipal base, Sri Mulyani is a world figure who has been consistently featured as one of the best finance ministers in the world, legitimized in unchallenged form by her appointment as managing director of the World Bank. Her professional quality is so dominant that many are not aware that she has a strong public heart, being one of the pillars of the 1998 Reform Movement. In fact her favorite saying is “Never Stop Loving Indonesia”.

Having three heroes does not necessarily mean having three presidential candidates. They have a long way to go. Dahlan Iskan and Jokowi need to have political support generated from their admiring public. Sri Mulyani needs to complete her World Bank service before announcing her candidacy. And the party that plans to nominate her, SRI, needs to overcome government legalistic obstacles to formalize their active network in 33 provinces, nearly 500 regencies and thousands of subdistricts. But the seeds of political insurgence have been planted. Three potential candidates have won the public imagination. And imagination is the most powerful political capital. Without imagination, politics is business as usual perpetuating the corrupt political-business oligarchy.

Wimar Witoelar
The writer is a former spokesman for the late president Abdurrahman Wahid (1999-2001).