Karim Raslan

Karim Raslan: Redoing the Cabinet

The capital is seething with speculation about the incoming cabinet. Most of the names being floated in the media — and there are a lot — would be familiar to those who’ve followed Jakarta’s politics. There are businessmen (but interestingly no businesswomen), think-tankers, academics and a handful of retired generals as well as some senior bureaucrats.

In many ways the list is vintage “Beltway” — insiders who have become practiced players on the Sudirman-Senayan circuit, the nexus of power and money in Indonesia.

However, the lists appear to have ignored one potential source of cabinet candidates. Amid all the political intrigue few people have thought to include the many local leaders — governors, district heads and mayors — who have emerged over the past five years since the introduction of decentralization and the attendant direct elections.

Indeed it’s wise to remember that even the present incumbent of the White House, the near-sainted Barack Obama, began his political career in the trenches of Chicago, serving as a lowly state senator for three terms between 1997 and 2004 before he made his explosive entry onto the national stage during the Democratic National Convention in 2004.

Interestingly, Indonesia’s Democratic Party — perhaps mindful of Obama’s head-turning 2004 debut — called upon the handsome and well-respected 51-year-old West Sumatran governor, Gamawan Fauzi, to read a statement in support of the SBY-Boediono team at the high-profile campaign launch in Bandung back in mid-May.

While there are a number of notorious local leaders whose rapacity and greed has been almost unbelievable, there are some successes and Gamawan is their standard bearer. His credentials are impressive.

As the district head of Solok from 1995 to 2005, he was widely applauded for the reforms he introduced as well as his zero tolerance for graft. In 2004 he won the Bung Hatta Anticorruption Award just as a large number of his province’s legislators were being tried and convicted of wholesale fraud.

In 2005, Gamawan rode the anticorruption momentum to win West Sumatra’s gubernatorial contest. Having built his career step by step, he is no passing phenomenon or shooting star.

Still, this being Indonesia, he has his detractors, many of whom point to the province’s lackluster economy, not to mention the dilapidated state of his capital, Padang. Nonetheless, there’s no doubt that Gamawan stands out when compared to the mass of local leaders.

As with the best of those leaders, Gamawan has had to develop a range of skills. He’s learned to mediate between conflicting interests — between business, the often truculent civil service, the media, NGOs and the needs of the people. Moreover, for many Indonesians the local leaders — especially the district heads and mayors — are infinitely more important than the denizens of the Sudirman-Senayan world. The local leaders can make a substantial difference to their quality of life.

Gamawan is by no means alone. For example, in Central Java we have Ibu Rustriningsih, the former district head of Kebumen and now provincial deputy governor, a PDI-P icon and acknowledged vote-getter with a reputation for accessibility and delivering results, in her case a slew of critical infrastructure projects.

Elsewhere there are leaders such as the mayors of Yogyakarta, Solo and Makassar — Harry Zardianto, Joko Widodo and Ilham Arief Sirajuddin — all of whom have been praised for their clean, efficient and pro-people administrative skills.

Once again, these leaders, much like Gamawan, have developed the ability to manage diverse and challenging communities, to make bold decisions and see them through, while winning over — steadily and slowly through time-consuming engagement — those that would be resistant.

While there’s bound to be a degree of “metropolitan” disdain for those who have carved out careers in the provinces, the reality of power is such that those who can command the votes will always rise to the center — witness the startling successes of Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, the two former Southern governors who were to take Washington DC by storm.

Could Gamawan’s inclusion in the Bandung campaign event be a harbinger of change? Could we be witnessing yet another step in the recalibration of Indonesian politics as the power of Jakarta is further curtailed with the advancement of figures from across the republic?

Karim Raslan is a columnist who divides his time between Malaysia and Indonesia.

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