RIDWAN Kamil seems to have received instant karma. In the run up to polling day, a number of political parties backing him in the 2024 Jakarta regional head election, such as the NasDem Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the National Mandate Party (PAN) have begun to abandon him. Ridwan Kamil should have realized from the start that the political support from the parties backing him was not sincere.

Having just joined the Golkar Party, Ridwan was supported by it, together with other parties calling themselves the ‘Indonesia Onward Coalition (KIM) plus’ in his candidacy for governor of Jakarta. At least 12 parties joined this grouping, backing the former Governor of West Java running alongside Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) politician Suswono.

Apart from the Gerindra Party and Golkar, the other parties backed Ridwan because of pressure from President Joko Widodo, who did not want them to support Anies Baswedan, or rather, he wanted to stop Anies from winning the Jakarta governorship. Previously, the PKS had paired Anies with one of its members, M. Sohibul Iman. And NasDem had previously expressed support for Anies, but then settled on Ridwan Kamil.

Unfortunately, there is resistance from some people in Jakarta to Ridwan Kamil. When he visited the grave of Mbah Priok in North Jakarta at the beginning of September, people shouted for him to step down from the podium, being of the opinion that Jakarta was not Ridwan’s home. The Jakmania, as supporters of the Persija Jakarta soccer club are known, are also opposed to him. Persija’s fiercest rival is Persib Bandung from West Java. When he was governor of West Java, Ridwan made a comment that was considered as insulting Persija.

With all this opposition, and a coalition that is not solid, the party vote-gathering machine is not running optimally. In the last two months of the campaign, and since the debate between the candidates, support for the Ridwan Kamil-Suswono has fallen steadily.

In the latest poll by the Lembaga Survei Indonesia, Ridwan-Suswono is on only 37.4 percent, while their rival, Pramono Anung-Rano Karno, has risen to 41.6 percent. The independent pairing of Dharma Pongrekun-Kun Wardana is trailing on 6.6 percent, while 9.9 percent of voters have still to make up their minds. Although these percentages could rise or fall before polling day on November 27, the polls still show that Ridwan-Suswono has dropped 6.5 percent.

The Ridwan Kamil-Suswono pairing, known as ‘Rido’ for short, has also made a number of blunders. Suswono made a joke about rich widows in Jakarta marrying young men without jobs in order to reduce unemployment as part of the strategy to bring prosperity to all. This statement attracted condemnation, and Suswono had to issue a clarification.

The Jakarta election shows that the candidates for the governorship are standing without any clear or measurable vision or mission. The coalition is only backing them based on short-term interests and not long-term commitments.

In the context of the support for Ridwan Kamil and his opponents, the political parties and the coalition have taken a decision simply to anticipate a particular situation. As a result, support for them is fragile when the political situation changes. Without a clear vision and mission or any firm commitments from the candidates, it is the people who will lose out over the next five years.