Lecture Abstract

The 2014 Indonesian Presidential Election has yielded two teams comprising Prabowo Subianto – Hatta Rajasa and Joko Widodo (Jokowi) – Jusuf Kalla (JK) competing neck and neck in a tight race for the nation’s highest office. Come July 9th, Indonesia will witness a new president taking office after current president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono steps down from his second and last term. Based on recent survey results, the margin between the two competing presidential and vice-presidential candidate teams have narrowed considerably. Such a phenomenon is quite unprecedented in Indonesia and it raises a few questions of concern:

What can one glimpse from current voter preferences for either candidate team? What will be the challenges faced by either the Prabowo-Hatta team or the Jokowi-JK team if they were to win in the 2014 Presidential Election? What is the likelihood of a post-election backlash given the increasingly tight competition? How will the current political configuration and coalitional forces within both camps change following the announcement of the new president?

We are privileged to have Dr. Phillips Vermonte who is the Head of the Department of Politics and International Relations at CSIS, Jakarta, Indonesia and Mr. Tobias Basuki, a researcher at the Department of Politics and International Relations, CSIS to share their thoughts and insights on the possible outcomes of the 2014 Presidential Elections and the potential implications the 2014 Legislative Elections present to the 2014-2019 administration.

About the Speaker

Dr. Phillips J. Vermonte is Head of the Department of Politics and International Relations, The Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Jakarta, Indonesia. He joined CSIS as a researcher at the Department of International Relations in 2001. His research interests include comparative politics, non-traditional security issues in Southeast Asia, Indonesia’s foreign policy and conflict studies.

A Fulbright scholar, Dr. Vermonte received his doctoral degree from the Department of Political Science, Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, USA. Prior to his doctoral studies in the US, he obtained a Master of Arts degree in International Studies from the Department of Politics, University of Adelaide, Australia in 2001, funded via an AusAid scholarship.

Tobias Basuki is a researcher in the Department of Politics and International Relations, The Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Jakarta, Indonesia. Prior to joining CSIS, he was Director of Studies at the Leimena Institute and was also a full-time lecturer at Pelita Harapan University (2007-2009). His research interests include democratization, the role of identity in politics, religion and state dynamics in national and international politics and human rights issues with a primary focus on religious freedom.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Goshen College, Indiana, United States. Basuki earned his Master’s degree in Political Science from Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, USA in 2007.

Organised by Indonesia Programme, Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies with support from RSIS Events Unit.