TIME: The New Face of Indonesian Democracy

In just a few days Joko Widodo will become the president of Indonesia. To mark the historic occasion, Time magazine decided to put Jokowi on the cover of their latest international edition with the headline “A New Hope” and the subtitle “Indonesian President Joko Widodo is a force for democracy” (what is it about the Jokowi-Prabowo political struggle that makes writers so keen on using Star Wars references?).

The cover is an extreme close-up shot of our new chief executive’s lovably asymmetrical face by photographer Adam Ferguson.

On Oct. 20, Joko Widodo, universally known by the nickname Jokowi, will be sworn in as the seventh...

This appears in the October 27, 2014 issue of TIME.

....''Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous nation, a democracy with rich natural resources and more Muslims than any other country on the planet. And it just elected a new President. Meet Joko Widodo

The passenger sitting in 42K, deep in economy class, orders a cup of milk from the flight attendant, then leans against the window for a nap. Far below, as ­Garuda Indonesia Flight GA 226 heads east toward the Indonesian heartland city of Solo, an angry mountain sends a vermilion blaze into the night sky, just another eruption in a country with the most active volcanoes on earth.

A little girl named Shakira slowly makes her way to the bathrooms at the back of the plane, checking out each traveler with the forthright stare of a 5-year-old. She glances at the sleeping figure, then points, like an overexcited tourist on safari. “It’s Mr. Jokowi,” she says, delighted at her discovery. “He’s on the plane with me.” ...

We can’t read the full article because it’s behind a paywall (btw Time, “Subscriber content preview. or Sign in”? What was there before “or Sign in”? Did you just take away our ability to read it for free, just like the Merah Putih Coalition took away our right to direct regional elections? For shame!).

But it seems unlikely that anybody who has any knowledge of Jokowi or Indonesia in general will get much new information from the article. Its lead starts with factoid like “Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous nation,” which apparently Karen Beech or her editors thought was such a little-known piece of information amongst general Time readers it was worth starting their cover story off with.

And the sad thing is, they’re probably right. But still, our new hope is that this will help more of the outside world to get excited about Indonesia and our new president (assuming, of course, he doesn’t get impeached immediately). jakartacoconut.com