On December 2, 2016, dressed in a simple black peci, white shirt, and black trousers, plus a blue umbrella for the rain, Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo strolled out of the presidential palace and toward the waiting crowd. Even with the security cordon around him, it was hard not to feel nervous.
The crowd dressed in white prayer robes was massive – some 500,000 to 700,000 – spilling out of Merdeka Square and down Jakarta’s arterial roads. Its organizers were no friends of Jokowi. The 212 Movement, named after the protest’s date, was calling for the arrest and imprisonment of Jokowi’s close ally, the governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja “Ahok” Purnama, on charges of blasphemy.
The government viewed the demonstration nervously. Protests on November 4 – which attracted some 100,000 people – had turned violent. As the second protest approached, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Wiranto, meeting a group of inter-faith leaders, pointedly played footage of the bloody 1998 riots that brought down the Suharto dictatorship after over three decades of rule. Having commanded Indonesia’s military at the time, Wiranto’s warning carried weight.
Until the very last moment many thought Jokowi would dodge the protest on his doorstep. Instead, he walked out to join the crowd in afternoon prayers. After the prayers finished, Jokowi scrambled through the press of bodies and onto the stage. Once there he briefly thanked the crowd for their prayers and orderliness. As he left, some in the crowd cried for the immediate arrest of Ahok, already under police investigation. But, as the day drew on the demonstrators slowly dispersed with no violence reported.
Four days later the Indonesia’s Attorney-General’s Office filed blasphemy charges against Ahok. And four months later, in April 2017, Rizieq Shihab, one of the most radical forces behind the protests, fled to Saudi Arabia, dodging police summons. It was alleged he had breached pornography laws by exchanging salacious texts with a woman who, coincidentally, had been arrested before dawn on December 2 on murky treason charges.
There are many dramatic moments in Jokowi’s nearly two-decade long political career, but his handling of the 212 Movement best encapsulates many aspects of his leadership: boldness and a capacity to surprise allies and critics alike, enormous faith in his own ability to connect with the Indonesian masses and shape events, an ability to tack to the political wind without being seen as a mere opportunist, and a willingness to tame Indonesia’s darker political forces through a mix of concession and coercive state power.