A fresh-faced president's appeal among moderates and young voters faded as he tolerated crackdowns on dissent and pandered to Islamists in Indonesia.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo addresses supporters at a rally at Jakarta's main stadium on April 13.
But Jokowi bears scars from that campaign, during which a concerted campaign of online rumors falsely labeled him a lapsed Muslim, ethnically Chinese or a secret communist. “All of the issues right now are being buried under identity politics, under who will be more Islamic than the other,” Made Supriatma, former editor of the Indonesian news service JoyoNews, told an audience Monday at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, a Singapore think tank.Jokowi went from running a furniture business in his hometown of Solo to local politics, to being elected governor of the Jakarta capital region, which catapulted him to national prominence.
But reform-minded Indonesian voters have little reason to cheer for Prabowo, a former special forces commander under Suharto and the former dictator’s son-in-law. The 67-year-old is accused by human rights groups of having ordered the killings of separatists and student dissidents – charges he denies.
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