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Indonesians disappointed one year after Joko Widodo's inauguration
ABC Radio Australia - October 20, 2015
Mr Widodo came to office on nine key platforms, all based on improving the livelihoods of everyday Indonesian people. Twelve months on the glamour has gone, the economy is on a downturn and the rupiah keeps on falling.
At the presidential palace, a small but vocal crowd of Indonesia students gathered to demand more from their leader. Anti-riot police moved in quickly to ensure the protest remained small, almost insignificant.
Aryo Djojohadikusumo, the secretary-general of the Gerindra opposition party, said Mr Widodo had failed to keep key promises. "In terms of marks, I'll give him at least three out of 10 so far," he told the ABC.
Mr Djojohadikusumo said one of Mr Widodo's main mistakes was an ill-conceived decision to appoint a tainted police chief, which destroyed a pledge to eradicate corruption. "His promise to intensify the fight against corruption and what we've seen has been a complete shambles," he said.
Independent political analyst Paul Rowland said the appointment of the police chief and the decision to execute foreigners had been headwinds for Mr Widodo. "He lost momentum with, I think, two major events," Mr Rowland said.
"One was the ill-fated decision to execute a number of prisoners on death row, which took away a lot of the governments room to put out positive news in the first few months. And the second one was the appointment of a new chief of police.
"Domestically I think [the execution of foreigners] was... briefly popular. On the other hand, it did act as quite a distraction for a number of months and kept his eye off more important policy goals."
Latest polling shows growing dissatisfaction for the president one year on. A recent survey found 54 per cent of people in 34 provinces were dissatisfied with Mr Widodo's administration, according to the Jakarta Globe.
The Indo Barometer survey said respondents were concerned by rising food and fuel prices, slow economic growth and the weakened rupiah.
Support for Mr Widodo was 11.5 per lower than six months ago, the Globe said. The poll of 1,200 respondents had a margin of error of 3 per cent. Luckily for him, Mr Widodo still has four years left of his term to turn things around.
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