by JOHN McBETH
Minister’s arrest on corruption charges may be linked to his party’s support for opposition presidential aspirant Anies Baswedan
JAKARTA – Valid or not, it is proving difficult for President Joko Widodo to fend off claims that a political motive lies behind last week’s arrest of National Democrat Party-affiliated (Nasdem) Communications and Informatics Minister Johnny Plate on corruption charges.
Although a cloud had been hanging over him for months, it must still have taken the president’s nod to indict Plate for allegedly causing losses to the state of 8 trillion rupiah (US$536 million) in the installation of telecom base transceiver stations (BTS) in remote corners of the vast archipelago.
Nasdem has three ministers in the current Cabinet, but party leader Surya Paloh created tensions within the government – and sparked rumors of a pending reshuffle – after declaring his support for opposition presidential candidate Anies Baswedan last October.
Although there had been some friction between the two, Paloh’s move to switch sides clearly took Widodo by surprise because the bearded media baron had been the first senior political figure to support him when he ran for the presidency in 2014 and again in 2019.
With the Justice and Prosperity (PKS) and Democrat (DP) parties already lining up behind Baswedan, Nasdem’s support allowed the former Jakarta governor to clear the threshold of 20% of parliamentary seats necessary to be nominated for what is shaping up to be a three-way race.
Jakarta’s political elite are wary of Baswedan because of his links to Islamic conservatives and because of the belief he could attract substantial votes from among the 56% of the electorate that is under 40 and has differing political views.
Although his chances do appear remote at this point, his election would also represent a changing of the guard among the powerful politically-connected businessmen who surround the current government.
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