Jakarta: election victory for challenging duo, ethnic Chinese Christian deputy governor
Jakarta
(AsiaNews) - It has yet to be officially confirmed but according to the exit
polls the first results of Jakarta government elections indicate a victory for
Joko Widodo and his deputy Basuki Tjahaja Purnawa to govern the Indonesian
capital from October 7 next. Yesterday's vote for governor and deputy governor
seems to have come out in favour of the challenging pair , the victim in recent
weeks of a smear campaign on ethnic and confessional lines (see AsiaNews
27/08/2012 Campaign
against Chinese Christian candidate in Jakarta gubernatorial race), aimed
at ensuring the confirmation of the outgoing governor Fauzi "Foke"
Bowo, supported by fringe Muslims.
Jakarta has
always been considered a sort of miniature laboratory of the Indonesian
political landscape, which is why such a victory will have a significant
implication in the national context for the major parties ahead of the
presidential elections of 2014.
In the first round, held on 11 July, the challenging pair
took a surprise lead with 42.6% of votes, while Bowo stopped at 34.05%. According
to the initial results, the ballot has confirmed the result of the first round
with the duo Jokowi-Ahok winners with 53% of the vote.
Indonesian political analysts and experts talk of "historic victory ",
which will see "popular" leaders become the administrative heads of
the capital, of a different ethnicity and religion from the vast majority of
citizens. Joko Widodo, the outgoing governor of Solo, in central Java, is a
practicing Muslim and liberal. His deputy Basuki Tjahaja Purnawa is a
Christian, a native of South Sumatra.
Jokowi has received awards and declarations of appreciation for the work done
in Solo, where in the last seven years he held the office of mayor. His work
has been widely and politically supported by his Catholic deputy-mayor, a noted politician in Solo as
well as a good catholic figure due to his activity in his parish church as a "lay"
deacon who helps the priest to render the holy bread during communion or pay
visit to sick people when the priest is not around.
The entire election campaign for the office of governor in Jakarta was characterized by personal attacks
against Basuki Tjahaja Purnama because he is of ethnic Chinese descent - he was born in Solo, in central Java - and a
Christian. Articles and defamatory slogans threatened to exacerbate the interfaith
clash and give new impetus to the tensions between religious groups. In the
past, in fact, the Muslim majority has targeted the ethnic Chinese minority -
of Christian or Buddhist religion- for example in May 1998, during the Suharto dictatorship,
when thousands of people were attacked with unprecedented and brutal violence. Over
the years there have been other assaults on the minority further underlining
the "fragility" of the social fabric of Indonesia, the largest Muslim
country in the world.
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