Widodo's son to continue family's political dynasty

With a new President to be sworn in later this year, the son of Indonesia's current leader will fill the role of Vice President against allegations of nepotism, writes Duncan Graham.

DOES THE NAME Gibran Rakabuming Raka ring a bell? Certainly not Liberty or Big Ben, more like the tinkle from a pet’s collar. No matter. This tale is Shakespearean — a brave man of destiny or a finger puppet to flick aside.

The reserved, small-town Indonesian businessman and now Vice President-elect of the world’s third largest democracy is just half the age of his fearsome boss with an alleged human rights record of worrying substance.

Cashiered former career soldier Prabowo Subianto, now honorarily reinstated as a four-star general, will become the eighth president of the fourth largest nation in the world in October — and our neighbour.

Gibran has never been in the military, so has no first-hand knowledge of a culture of following incompetents’ orders without question.

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But this is his swag; he volunteered (or was press-ganged) for a job that’s been tagged as the “most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived”.

The U.S. quote is centuries old but appropriate in Indonesia today with current Vice President Ma'ruf Amin, aged 81. The former senior cleric and head of an Islamic organisation is VP only because President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo thought his name on the 2019 election ticket would draw pious voters.

In the past five years, the VP has done little more than open religious festivals and oppose gays, once quoted saying:

“We want a stern prohibition of LGBT activities and other deviant sexual activities and legislation that categorises them as crime.”

Jokowi rarely donned jubah gamis, the traditional shapeless long robes of conservative Muslim men to flaunt their godliness. Instead, he modelled the splendid designs of regional batik on his slender frame.

Batik is not the right fit for Prabowo, who uses safari suits to hide his plumpness. He’s height-sensitive, so compensates by strutting like Mussolini and heading parades on a stallion, hoping equine virility transfers.

He used to be married to second President Suharto’s daughter, Titiek. The marriage collapsed in 1998 when Prabowo was kicked out of the military for disobeying orders and then fled to Jordan.

Conservatives are trying to get the couple together so the Republic can have a first lady. So far, she’s resisted.

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The union produced Didit, a European socialite and fashion designer — widely rumoured to be gay. If so, it could be good news for the oppressed community as critics would fear offending Prabowo.

Indonesian politics has been eaten rotten from the inside by the termites locals call KKN — korupsi, kolusi, nepotisme. Now add D for dinasti: Independent research of 87 election candidates shows 50 came from political families.

Although the state claims to be democratic, it’s way down the international list and better labelled, flawed.

For his third try at the summit, Prabowo wanted someone linked to Jokowi who’d done well building toll roads, rail lines and a universal health insurance scheme. Who better than his son?

Gibran is Jokowi’s eldest, a successful food franchise flogger. The Constitution prevented his Dad from standing for a third five-year term, so why not a proxy?

Just a wee glitch: the law says public office holders must be over 40. Gibran, 36, sped to court and got the rule flipped; having his uncle as the senior judge on the bench may have helped.

Democrats were horrified; the masses probably thought it a hoot. Nepotism? What’s new?

Fed by a partisan media that makes The Australian look balanced, electors were led to a fix-it authoritarian former military man drawn as a cuddly gramps — though in reality, an echidna.

Prabowo won hands-down against two civilian thinkers, an academic and an administrator.

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Is it possible to overdose on politics? In Indonesia, yes. There’s a month left before the 14 February deciding date — and the signs are showing wear and tear.

So he’s got what he’s lusted for since being weaned largely because (so the psephologists reckon) Jokowi mark two is close by.

But how close? This will be more than a test of political skills — it’ll also measure the lad’s manhood. Has he got the right stuff, what it takes to eyeball his septuagenarian boss, hold the stare and say, “You’re wrong”?

It’s widely believed that Gibran’s top task is to ensure his Dad’s signature project, Nusantara, remains, however much the rupiah falls and the budget blows beyond the AU$50 billion allocated.

Nusantara is the new capital being built in East Kalimantan, 1,000 kilometres north of Jakarta. Overseas investors stay shy, so billions will have to flow from state funds otherwise tagged for the guns and missiles Prabowo and his mates love.

When Gibran graduated from a Singaporean campus in 2010 with a management diploma, it was expected he'd take over the family furniture business.

Instead, he started his own show selling snacks and then catering for weddings. Trade would not have been hindered by couples bragging they'd hired the President's son to get the dishes right.

He was recently reported to be worth about AU$2.6 billion. Not a bad story, though he won't talk to Western journos.

Whether he'd have done well with a name like Kampong Charlie is questionable. More than half of Indonesian startups fail within five years. The success-by-association trend continued when, in 2020, he was elected mayor of his Central Java hometown of Solo. It was a job Daddy used to have.

By then, Gibran had wed local bank accountant Selvi Ananda, a Catholic who converted to marry. Couples who respect each other’s different beliefs get hitched overseas.

She rarely wears a jilbab (headscarf), so the two-kids couple come across as progressive, the look that tertiary-educated young Indonesians want the world to see.

That's not Prabowo’s image — but he runs the show. For him, Gibran's just the warm-up act soon to be yanked off stage — that’s unless he dares to defy the oligarchy and pave his own path.

As this is Indonesian politics at its most iniquitous; he’d be well advised to go fishing for the next five years — or employ a food taster.