Compromises needed

Joko Widodo has often been styled a man of the people, a man who gets the results ordinary people want to see to improve their lives. He is not known as a man willing to make foul compromises but as one who has used his popularity to ride roughshod over the opposition.

Widodo is viewed widely as a representative of his country's new, young, post-dictatorship generation which ardently opposes corruption in high places and seeks to further foster a democratic government in the world's most populous Muslim country.

Indeed, it was on this platform that Widodo won a narrow victory in the presidential elections last July over Prabowo Subianto, former son-in-law of Indonesian dictator Suharto and the candidate of the entrenched and powerful old autocratic elite of millionaire businessmen.

Subianto and his cohorts have always believed that politics in Indonesia can be bought by the highest bidder. Shortly after Widodo's victory, it became apparent that Subianto and his cronies would not accept their defeat and leave the political stage quietly. They simply have too much to lose.

Not only did they quickly challenge the validity of Widodo's victory at the Supreme Court alleging widespread fraud, they also refused to allow their resultant defeat at the hands of the country's most senior judges to discourage them.

Now they are organizing the political opposition to the incoming president with the aim of creating political gridlock. In so doing they hope to condemn his administration to legislative impotency even before it has taken up the reins of power. Just last week, the opposition parties used the final session of the outgoing parliament to abolish the direct election of local leaders.

This was the mechanism which allowed Widodo to start his political career as mayor of the mid-sized city of Solo and later become governor of the capital Jakarta. Moreover, the direct election of local leaders has been a showcase of Indonesia's democratic development since the years of the Suharto dictatorship. This is indeed a worrying sign and one designed as a slap in the face to Widodo and his allies. After all, Subianto himself used the election campaign to cast doubt on the country's future as a democracy.

His allies followed this up by flexing their muscles in public. They used their 63 percent majority of the seats in the new Indonesian parliament to deliver another body blow to the incoming president by installing their own candidate as speaker. The opposition also seized the chance to divide the spoils by ensuring that all four deputy speakers came from the opposition alliance.

This means that the opposition, not the president, has a stranglehold on the agenda of the legislature elected last April. These methods are, of course, perfectly legitimate in a democracy and do not – at this point – indicate that the opposition will turn to unconstitutional methods in the future. But it is worrying nonetheless.

Widodo, widely known as Jokowi, has reacted by taking moral high ground and refused to offer members of the old Suharto-inspired elite the lucrative cabinet posts they crave in exchange for support in parliament. With an eye on the millions of Indonesians who voted for a new beginning in Indonesian politics, Jokowi obviously does not intend to abandon his principles. That is an honorable stance which deserves respect.

Clearly, Jokowi will appeal to public opinion and so push the opposition majority in parliament to support his popular reform agenda in the hope that the opposition parties will buckle under pressure. This is, however, a high risk policy not unknown to US President Barack Obama with whom Jokowi is often compared. None can predict who will emerge victorious from this struggle for power. No one knows who will blink first.

The country's economy is likely to suffer in the event of a long period of confrontation between the new president and the parliamentary majority. Business leaders, who initially responded positively to Jokowi's victory, are worried about the prospect of confrontation.

The stock market has already plunged to its lowest level since the election in July. The economy remains plagued by a weak currency and a large current account deficit. Against this background, the investment Jokowi is hoping for to kick start the economy is unlikely to materialize any time soon.

None of this augers well for the incoming president. Demands that he compromise with the old, corrupt elite he despises to get the support he needs for his reform agenda are likely to fall on deaf ears. Instead Jokowi has nailed his colors firmly to the mast and intends to put his faith in the tried and trusted methods he used as Jakarta Governor: A no-nonsense populist approach to problem-solving.

Clearly, he does not believe that he should change his style or the methods that have propelled him to the presidency. But as former German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck once said "politics is the art of the possible, the attainable - the art of the next best."

Jokowi may have to learn this lesson, even if compromise of this kind with the old elite appears eminently distasteful. That may, however, be the only way to get at least some of his reform agenda on to the statute books. And that is what Indonesia now needs more than protracted posturing and squabbling amongst its politicians.