Iriana’s Ambitions

THESE days, the saying that “behind every successful man is a great woman” needs to be corrected. Given the actions of First Lady Iriana Jokowi in pushing for her son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, to become a vice-presidential candidate, the sentence should be changed to “behind every family dynasty, there is a mother calling the shots.”

Iriana Jokowi’s ambition finds a perfect match: Jokowi does not want to lose his crown, there is a presidential candidate who only wants power, there are parties parroting their ‘king’ and there are supporters who do not care one way or the other. An investigation by this magazine found that Iriana has repeatedly been expressing her wish to push Gibran into becoming a vice-presidential candidate since the beginning of 2023.

Several months beforehand, Gerindra Party General Chair Prabowo Subianto approached Gibran and asked if the latter would be prepared to be his running mate in the 2024 presidential election. As well as going to Solo, Prabowo invited the city’s mayor to his home in Hambalang, Bogor, West Java in June 2022.

Iriana’s ambition was thwarted by the age requirement for presidential and vice-presidential candidates of 40 years old. At the time, Gibran was 36. But subsequently her wishes came to be in line with the Constitutional Court ruling that changed Article 169 subsection q of the General Elections Law by adding the words “...or have been elected in a general election.” This decision that cleared Gibran’s political path was taken by the Constitutional Court Chaired by Anwar Usman, Gibran’s uncle.

The Constitutional Court’s Ethics Council decided that this ruling was an ethical violation and contained a conflict of interest. Anwar was subsequently dismissed as Constitutional Court Chief Justice. A day before the ruling was read, according to information obtained by Tempo, Iriana already knew it. Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Secretary-General Hasto Kristiyanto openly accused the State Palace of meddling in the court.

As well as consolidating her extended family, Iriana also asked for support from a number of mass organizations and intervened in the Prabowo-Gibran volunteers organization. To her extended family, Iriana denied that Gibran’s nomination was hasty.

This is not the first time a president’s wife has been involved in public policy. Ibu Tien, the wife of President Suharto, for example, had considerable influence over her husband’s policies in regard to the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII). She is also known to have participated in the selection of state officials.

A husband who does not limit the role of his wife, yet alone allows and persuades her to meddle, opens the door to corruption, collusion and nepotism. The gossip during the New Order regime was that Ibu Tien was Madam Ten Percent—a term referring to the 10 percent bribe she demanded in order for projects to be approved by the government.

In the case of Iriana Jokowi, ambition was wrapped up with a personal affront. The ups and downs of her husband’s relationship with Megawati Sukarnoputri of the PDI-P troubled Iriana. Matters came to a head at the PDI-P’s national coordination meeting in May. In front of hundreds of party members, Megawati said that without the PDI-P, Jokowi would be nothing. A vlog uploaded by Puan Maharani, Megawati’s daughter, made matters worse. Jokowi then met with Mega at the PDI-P offices, but the meeting was like a subordinate meeting with the boss.

And now the worst has happened: family matters are now threatening the future of our democracy. A general election that is a democratic mechanism to select a new leadership has been turned into a way of continuing Jokowi’s dynasty.

Supported by the mobilization of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police, as well as the bureaucracy, the Prabowo-Gibran pairing will probably win. Wrongdoings in Prabowo’s past, including the nepotism of the Jokowi family, might be forgotten by voters in a shallow and absent-minded TikTok-style campaign. The pairing of gemoy (chubby) and bocil (the boy) is now the means of attracting voters.

Now, after Prabowo and Gibran officially become a presidential and vice-presidential candidate pairing, the future of Indonesia will be in the hands of voters. They should not allow Indonesian democracy to be destroyed in an abyss.