Sunday, April 26, 2009

Obama and Osama on the Streets of Yogyakarta

Posted by John
When Indonesians start conversations with us on the street, their favorite question is, “Where are you from?” More often that not, the answer “Amerika Serikat” elicits a thumbs up and an approving shout of “Obama!”

Some variation of this conversation is probably occurring anywhere in the world Americans are traveling in 2009, but Indonesians feel a special connection to the 44th president owing to the four childhood years he spent in Jakarta. One t-shirt on Yogyakarta’s busiest street today testified to Obama’s Indonesia connections, “From Manteng to the White House.”

The Manteng district of Jakarta does still seem like an improbable launching pad for a U.S. president. Indonesians and other citizens of the world seem to recognize that whatever their politics, Americans did something potentially remarkable for the 21st century global community when choosing Obama to be their leader. The 2008 U.S. presidential campaign often cast Obama’s peripatetic childhood and global connections in an unfavorable light, but half a world a way, it’s encouraging to see how much goodwill Indonesians extend to Americans based on their love of our president. The barber around the corner has even renamed his shop “Obama” — I’m going there tomorrow and am hoping they can give me the presidential cut.

Most Indonesians, of course, probably wouldn’t be any less welcoming if John McCain were president. They pride themselves on their hospitality and it’s evident in virtually every interaction. Here in Yogyakarta, the cultural capital of Indonesia’s largest island of Java, bus conductors stop us to make sure that we, the only obviously non-Indonesian passengers in a carriage stuffed to the gills with passengers, have all the information we need to make it to our destination. And while it can become tiresome to fend off bicycle taxi rides from Yogyakarta’s seemingly endless supply of becak drivers who want to take us to the city’s even more numerous batik boutiques, most seem genuinely curious to know who we are and why we’re here, especially once they hear Danielle answering them in perfect Indonesian. And five-year-old kids often shout “Hello, Mister!” or other lines they’ve picked up from pop songs and Hollywood films.

This spirit of goodwill may not extend to everyone, of course. As we were waiting at a bus station today, an older woman cycled past us sporting a smile and an Osama bin Laden t-shirt. To be fair, however, we didn’t get the best look at her whizzing by the station. It was definitely bin Laden, but her shirt may have been one of Indonesians’ many ironic commentaries on life in T-shirt form, commentaries that often incorporate English phrases that are either unintentionally hilarious or intentionally subversive. Not long before we saw the Osama t-shirt, another t-shirt vendor proudly donned a shirt saying “F*@#k terrorist.” (Several Indonesian shirts make liberal use of the F-word, either showing Indonesians’ previously hidden rebellious streak or a profound misunderstanding of the word’s use in polite company. Also, their English subjects don’t always agree with verbs, and plural nouns are placed next to singular adjectives, but I really shouldn’t be critical considering the woeful state of my Indonesian.)

We were also noticing a number of pedicab drivers in red Party of Democratic Struggle (PDIP) t-shirts. At first, we surmised that this might have to do with the fact that PDIP fashions itself as a party of the people, and taxi drivers from the lower economic strata would form a natural part of their constituency. But before long, we saw pedicab drivers with other parties’ paraphernalia as well. Then we realized that for pedicab drivers with little money, a free t-shirt is a free t-shirt. Our host family confirmed this today, joking that that some becak drivers are outfitted by a different party each day of the week. The red and blue star of the ruling Democratic Party on Monday, the Gerinda eagle on Tuesday...

Counting political party t-shirts on the street may seem like a poor form of electoral analysis, but you could probably do worse in Indonesia, where the picture emerging from this month’s parliamentary election remains murky. Perhaps as many as 40 million voters out of a country of 230 million were left off the rolls, a discouraging sign to many in a country where competitive democratic elections only began in 1999. There’s no sign of intentional fraud yet, but there are questions whether certain regions and classes of voters were disproportionately affected. One of my Indonesian teachers was among the individuals left off the voter rolls. Some parties have talked about boycotting the July presidential election in protest, but so far it’s just talk. Nine parties received more than 2.5% of the votes for parliament, which qualifies them to run a candidate in the presidential election, and no one wants to sit this one out.

The Democratic Party, formed just four years ago to support former general and current President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY), came out on top in the parliamentary election with 20% of the vote. This party came out of nowhere to become the leading force in government and SBY has established a reputation for strong economic stewardship and anti-corruption. Most analysts expect SBY to win re-election, and horse-trading has already begun with a number of smaller parties to help SBY form a coalition in the parliament.

Two potential wild cards remain: Golkar—the establishment party during 35 years of authoritarian rule, and PDIP, the party at the forefront of efforts to end authoritarian rule in the late 1990—still remain potent forces in Indonesian politics. Each polled 15 percent in the parliamentary elections, and it’s not clear whether SBY can form an effective governing coalition without at least one of these parties.

PDIP seems a poor match—there’s still bad blood between SBY and PDIP’s Megawati Sukarnopurti, Indonesia’s democratization hero who was floundering as president in 2004 when SBY unseated her. Golkar had formed an important part of SBY’s coalition over the last four years, but problems have emerged in the relationship between SBY and Golkar’s Jusuf Kalla, SBY’s current vice president who won’t be re-nominated for a second term. The SBY-Kalla soap opera seems part and parcel of the perennial drama that unfolds in many presidential systems—the vice-president swears his loyalty while trying to hide his own political ambitions, while the president claims the vice- president’s political ambitions are compromising his loyalty. Add to that the fact that the president and vice-president don’t belong to the same party, and it’s especially prickly.

There’s an outside chance that Golkar and PDIP could team up to run a joint presidential candidate, but that remains unlikely. As Danielle points out, that would require the party that controlled every aspect of political life in Indonesia for more than three decades to join forces with the party that was formed explicitly to overthrow that authoritarian system. Ideological incompatibility aside, neither Megawati nor Kalla seems eager to step aside and let the other steal the limelight.

If that’s not enough political complexity for you, there are also three Islamic parties with good track records on social services and anti-corruption that grabbed a combined 20 percent of the parliamentary vote—not enough to rule, but one of them could well serve as political kingmaker before it’s all said and done. Plus, two former generals from the army (which most Indonesians revere above any other national institution) have thrown their hats into the ring by forming new political parties. That’s in addition to SBY, the former general who is already president. In case you’re still keeping score at home.

Reading the political tea leaves here in Yogyakarta, we’ll be watching the wardrobes of bicycle taxi drivers closely and report back with any news.

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