Joko Widodo, Golkar and GOL

Do you think Jokowi will be a winner in this race? ‘’No. Golkar will!’’ one of journalist in Jakarta said, months before Joko Widodo won president’s election last July. ‘’Whoever will be the new president, he should be facing GOL in parliament,’’ he added.

GOL as ‘Grand Old Lawmakers’ or ‘some people called 'Liar’ dominated Indonesian parliament for decades. They, who has personal entourage, private bodyguards and even private jet, control majority of the parliament and political stage in Indonesia.

Golkar, former Indonesian ruling party over 30 years, who join into Red-White Coaltion with other parties as main supporter of Prabowo, gain more than 63% parliament seat. While Jokowi and his party Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) and its coalition, has less than that. ‘’Jokowi had an option to chose which party he can get, but Golkar is the well structure organization and the most experience party,’’ said Bachtiar Abdullah, political journalist in Jakarta.

Once Prabowo Subianto defeated, Red-White Coalition who supported him will be break up. And Golkar could have been turned to Jokowi. Golkar’s young generation leaders demanded Abu Rizal Bakri, the Prabowo’s full hearted supporter, retired as chairman. ‘’We need his explanation why Golkar joint the coalition,’’ said Priyo Budi Santoso after met with other Golkar exponents.

And the most important thing is that, Jusuf Kalla, former Golkar chairman and now will be the next vice president, still has political power and influences among party’s members. He has supporters not only among Golkar, but from Eastern Indonesian. One of succesful businessman, Kala dominated both shipping and political network in Eastern Indonesia. ‘’With all the advantages, Jokowi should embrace Golkar with new young leader as his partner,’’ Bachtiar said. While Amarjit Singh, senior Analyst Country at IHS stated, ’’Apart from providing political experience support from the Golkar Party will help Jokowi garner a majority in the House of Representatives.’’

While Jokowi, a furniture businessman, undoubtely magnet for foreign investors. CNBC reported that The Jakarta Composite surged to a fresh 15-month high Friday morning after Joko Widodo was confirmed as president of the world's third-largest democracy. Stocks powered to a high of 5223.975 in early trade before falling slightly, while Rupiah strengthened 0.3 percent to Rp 11,662 rupiahs per US dollar after Indonesia's highest court upheld the July election result on Thursday.

Indonesian stocks are up 22 percent year-to-date. "A lot of the optimism and euphoria about Jokowi's victory has already been priced in to the market," said Seng Wun Soon, regional economist at Hong Kong’s CIMB bank to CNBC.

The real question will be what has he achieved measured against Indonesia's massive problems. As the Jakarta governor, Jokowi did this well. The main problems there — flooding and traffic — have been building for perhaps 100 years, and he was able to initiate changes while convincing people they would not bear fruit instantly.

The difficulty of fixing problems across this enormous, disparate, poverty-stricken archipelago, though, is vastly greater. Indonesia is closer to Africa in its levels of poverty than to its South-east Asian neighbours. In 2011, 43 per cent of people scraped by on less then two dollars per day, a ten-times greater proportion than in Thailand and 20 times higher than neighbour Malaysia. Fixing that will make a vast array of policy and political demands of a president whose executive power is weaker than it looks.

Jokowi has started the task early, looking to appoint professional ministers not political ones. Indonesian Corruption Watch, ICW has demanded him to arrest 100 corruptors in his first 100 days of his presidency. Will Jokowi issue an order to detain those corruptors among GOL lawmakers after he sworn in as new president October 22, 2014? (DP)