Instruments Of Change

A MIDNIGHT phone call surprised Andi Widjajanto in early September. The caller who claimed to be a governor's aide had been searching for hours for the cellphone of Andi, who happens to be a deputy head of the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla transition team. The aide was calling because the governor had been waiting for more than 12 hours to meet with Andi at Plaza Senayan in South Jakarta.

That governor, according to Andi, was ready to be tested as a candidate for a ministerial position. This seemed strange since Andi had never contacted any governor nor was he in charge of selecting cabinet ministers. The governor, of a province outside Java, realized that he had been deceived. "It turned out that someone claiming to be from the transition team had asked to meet him," he said at the transition office, last week.

September 16, 2014