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Join Professor Marcus Mietzner for the launch of his latest book on former Indonesian president Joko Widodo (Jokowi). For the event, Professor Mietzner will be in conversation with Dr Eve Warburton, who will ask the author questions about the book and will also moderate a Q&A session with the audience.

Agenda

• 5:00 - 5:30 pm light refreshments served in the Atrium
• 5:30 - 6:30 pm book launch in Lecture Theatre 1

About the book

Joko Widodo - popularly called Jokowi - ruled Indonesia for a decade, from 2014 to 2024. The world's fourth-largest nation and third-largest democracy, Indonesia had embarked on a messy democratic transition in the late 1990s, with the country's ethnic and religious heterogeneity posing significant challenges to governance. Initially seen as a reformer who might challenge oligarchic structures, Jokowi was slowly but steadily seen as himself being a threat to democracy. By the time Jokowi wrapped up his presidency, he had achieved the highest approval ratings among Indonesia's post-authoritarian presidents, and became the president with the tightest grip over Indonesia's political elite.

Based on exclusive interviews with Jokowi and many of Indonesia's top leaders, Ruling Indonesia shows Jokowi as a president obsessively preoccupied with his economic development agenda, subordinating all other aspects of governance to this goal. His focused approach delivered economic successes and unprecedented popularity, but also seriously undermined the health of Indonesia's democratic institutions. Offering a holistic appraisal of his decade in office, Marcus Mietzner analyzes Jokowi's domestic record in the context of his attempts to position Indonesia more favorably in the international competition for power and resources. Crucially, his obsession to push Indonesia closer to industrialized status while neglecting democratic development represented the ambitions and trials of many Global South leaders who are trying to juggle economic development, growing Sino-American tensions around the world, and concerns for democratic rights. As such, this book provides valuable insights into how the great power rivalry of the 21st century and the global recession of democracy are playing out in central arenas of the Global South.

About the author

Professor Mietzner has been interested in the politics of Indonesia since his first visit to Jakarta as a teenager in 1986. While pursuing an MA degree at Goethe University in Frankfurt in the mid-1990s, he spent one year in Ambon to collect material for his thesis on the rebellion of the South Moluccan Republic in 1950. After graduation, he moved to the ANU to obtain his PhD. During fieldwork for a thesis on the Indonesian military, he began working for USAID in Jakarta – an engagement that would last for more than seven years. Eventually, however, he returned to academia, finishing the PhD in 2005 and starting his new position as a lecturer at the ANU in 2008. Since then, his research has primarily focused on political parties and the presidency in democratic Indonesia.
 

Access the book (open-access available from 14 April): 


Additional information
Registration is required for this event. If you require accessibility accommodations or a visitor Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan please email bell.marketing@anu.edu.au. â€¯are available around campus should you require them.