Masa `Honeymoon` Presiden Jokowi Berakhir kata Media Asing

Honeymoon Over for Indonesian Leader as U-turns Erode Authority

Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi


Masa `Honeymoon` Presiden Jokowi Berakhir kata Media Asing
Presiden RI Joko Widodo menyalami warga Dompu saat panen raya jagung di NTB belum lama ini (Foto: B2B/Mac)

MEDIA asing melansir kabar tak sedap tentang posisi politik Joko Widodo setelah enam bulan dilantik menjadi Presiden RI, berawal dari upayanya mengajukan anggaran pembangunan dan belanja negara (RAPBN) tahun ini ke DPR yang dikuasai lawan politiknya, Koalisi Merah Putih (KMP), disebutkan bahwa Jokowi menyerahkan penanganan hal itu kepada para pembantunya untuk berunding dengan para legislator di DPR.

Kabar yang dilansir Reuter melalui artikel berjudul 'Honeymoon over for Indonesian Leader as U-turns erode authority' seperti dikutip MailOnline menyebutkan bahwa para pembantunya menawarkan 'barter'' berupa penambahan uang muka pembelian mobil baru hampir Rp200 juta per unit.

Di tengah penolakan publik terhadap janji konsesi di negara yang korupsinya merajalela, tulis Reuters, para pembantu Presiden bergegas balik arah, akibatnya dukungan publik terhadap Joko Widodo pun mulai tergerus sejak berkuasa enam bulan lalu.

Pengusaha mebel di Solo, Jawa Tengah yang karier politiknya melambung menjadi presiden di negara demokrasi ketiga terbesar di dunia, sebagai presiden pertama dari non militer atau elit politik, dipandang sebagai angin segar bagi Indonesia.

Dialah pemimpin sesungguhnya, kata para pendukungnya, yang berjanji akan membasmi korupsi, mempromosikan orang berdasarkan prestasi bukan koneksi dan menciptakan iklim kondusif bagi perekonomian dengan memotong jalur birokrasi untuk mengundang investor.

Namun dalam wawancara dengan Reuters, beberapa pejabat pemerintah dan orang dalam istana menuding Presiden Jokowi bertindak sebaliknya.

Keputusan penambahan uang muka mobil pejabat tinggi yang ditetapkan melalui Keputusan Presiden (Kepres) menggerus reputasi Jokowi dan menyita banyak waktu. Hubungannya pun merenggang dengan Ketua Umum PDIP dan mantan Presiden RI, Megawati Soekarnoputri semakin menyudutkan Jokowi.

"Kondisi politik menyita banyak energi dan waktu, ketimbang tugas penting perbaikan ekonomi seperti membangun jalan dan pelabuhan," kata Eko Sulistyo, pejabat di kantor presiden kepada Reuters yang dikutip MailOnline.

"Konsentrasi dan fokus dapat terfragmentasi dan rusak karena politik (sekelilingnya)," tambahnya. "Itu mempengaruhi menteri dan kinerja pemerintah."

Namun Sulistyo, seperti pejabat lain yang telah diwawancarai, meyakini Jokowi dapat menjalankan pemerintahan dengan baik dan tetap mendapat dukungan dari rakyat Indonesia.

"Di Jalur yang Tepat"
Salah satu kendala utama Presiden Jokowi adalah dukungan politik. Dia tidak didukung secara mayoritas di DPR sehingga langkah reformasi di pemerintahannya kerap terhadang.

Meskipun demikian, dia telah berjanji kepada para investor asing pada tekadnya untuk memacu pertumbuhan ekonomi berkelanjutan, termasuk pemotongan subsidi bahan bakar minyak (BBM) dan pembenahan anggaran untuk meningkatkan anggaran pembangunan infrastruktur.

"Ini baru enam bulan, dan belum secara signifikan menunjukkan perbaikan ekonomi, karena upaya itu butuh waktu," kata seorang menteri sekaligus penasihat presiden yang meminta tidak disebutkan namanya.

"Saya percaya kami berada di jalur yang tepat. Ada banyak gangguan dari sudut pandang yang berbeda ... Karena itu, orang tidak melihat hal-hal baik yang terjadi."

Meskipun begitu harus diakui memang kemunduran.

Jokowi mengakui bahwa ia tidak membaca keputusan tentang tunjangan mobil sebelum menandatanganinya, akibatnya Presiden dikecam dan dicemooh di media sosial dan di surat, yang menambah daftar kelemahannya.
Netizen melalui media sosial juga mengecam kebijakan pembebasan visa bagi warga dari 30 negara, melarang instansi pemerintah menggelar rapat di hotel dan kebijakan ekspatriat yang bekerja di Indonesia harus lulus tes bahasa Indonesia.

Polemik Kandidat Kapolri
Reputasi Presiden Jokowi Widodo juga melemah di mata rakyatnya terkait dominasi Megawati, ketua umum PDIP dan koalisi partai politik pendukung Jokowi.
Pada kongres PDIP di Bali belum lama ini, presiden tampak duduk membungkuk di kursi barisan depan menyimak pidato Megawati yang meminta kadernya mengikuti kebijakan partai, katanya ketentuan itu juga berlaku bagi Presiden Jokowi.

Jokowi meninggalkan kongres partai yang berlangsung tiga setelah hadir beberapa jam saja tanpa menyampaikan pidato.

Hubungan antara Jokowi dan Megawati merenggang awal tahun ini terkait kandidat Kapolri, kata sumber di internal PDIP.

Jokowi harus menunda melantik Kapolri selama berminggu-minggu sebelum tunduk pada tekanan publik dan batal melantik Budi Gunawan, yang dekat dengan Megawati, setelah ia ditetapkan sebagai tersangka dalam skandal suap oleh KPK.

Budi Gunawan dinyatakan tidak bersalah setelah menang dalam gugatan praperadilan, setelah ditetapkan sebagai tersangka oleh KPK, publik pun menyatakan gusar terhadap Jokowi dianggap tidak tegas dalam mengambil keputusan.

"Hari-hari ini mereka (Jokowi dan Megawati) lebih jarang berbicara. Pasti ada masalah komunikasi antara bosPDI-P dan Jokowi," kata kader PDI-P Andreas Pareira.

Bagi para investor asing, kebijakan Jokowi memicu pertanyaan besar pada saat pertumbuhan ekonomi yang melambat dalam lima tahun terakhir dan membutuhkan kickstart dari investasi di bidang infrastruktur dan manufaktur.

"Enam bulan ini kita masih menghadapi tanda tanya besar apakah Jokowi mampu melaksanakan tugas dan kewajiban sebagai presiden," kata Jakob Sorensen, kepala European Business Chamber of Commerce di Jakarta.

Dalam pidato berbahasa Inggris, Jokowi mengatakan dalam forum bisnis minggu ini: "Silahkan datang dan berinvestasi di Indonesia karena ketika kita melihat tantangan, saya melihat kesempatan Dan jika Anda terhadang kendala,  hubungi saya..."

WHEN INDONESIAN President Joko Widodo wanted to push this year's budget through the opposition-dominated parliament, he left it to his advisers to hash out a deal with lawmakers.

Among the sweeteners his aides offered parliament members was to roughly double their allowance for down payments on new cars to $15,000.

Amid public fury over the concession in a country where graft is pervasive, the aides scrambled to reverse it, one of several policy flip-flops that have eroded support for Widodo since he took office six months ago.

His meteoric rise from furniture businessman to president of the world's third-largest democracy, and the first to come from outside the political or military establishment, was widely seen as a watershed moment for Indonesia.

Here was a leader, his supporters said, who would root out corruption, promote people based on merit rather than connections and create an environment where the stalling economy could reignite and investment flourish.

But in interviews with Reuters, government officials and palace insiders portrayed the president as sometimes out of his depth and struggling to get around entrenched vested interests.

Mis-steps like the car allowance decree have hurt Widodo's reputation and cost him time. His strained relationship with the powerful head of his political party, former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, further complicates his job.

"The 'realpolitik' situation is taking energy away from the real work; the economic programme, the roads and ports that need to be built," Eko Sulistyo, a member of the presidential office, told Reuters.

"(His) concentration and focus can be fragmented and broken because of the politics (around him)," he added. "That affects the ministers' and government's performance."

But Sulistyo, like others interviewed, believes Widodo can run the government successfully and still enjoys the support of Indonesians.

"On the Right Path"
One of the president's main problems is structural. He does not have a parliamentary majority allowing him to push through all the reforms he would like to.

Despite that, he has delivered on some of his promises that investors say are key to setting Indonesia on the path to sustainable economic growth, including slashing fuel subsidies and revamping the budget to boost infrastructure spending.

"It's only been six months, and to significantly improve the state of the country, it will take time," said a minister and presidential adviser who asked to remain anonymous.

"I believe we're on the right path. There is a lot of interference from different angles ... Because of that, people don't see the good things that are happening."

There have been setbacks, however.

Widodo conceded that he had not read the decree on car allowances before signing it, drawing widespread scorn on social media and in newspapers, which drew up lists of other U-turns.

They included reversing a visa waiver for citizens of 30 countries, dropping a ban on government bodies using hotels for meetings and backtracking on a requirement for foreigners working in the country to pass Indonesian language tests.

Police Trouble
Widodo has also been weakened in the eyes of his people by the domineering Megawati, leader of Widodo's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and his political patron.

At a recent party congress on the island of Bali, the president sat hunched in a front-row seat while Megawati harangued members to follow party directions, saying that this included the president himself.

Widodo left the three-day convention after only a few hours and without having delivered a prepared speech of his own.

Relations between the two were strained earlier this year over who should be made national police chief, party insiders said.

Widodo waited for weeks before bowing to pressure and ditching candidate Budi Gunawan, who is close to Megawati, after he had been implicated in a bribery scandal.

Gunawan maintained his innocence, and the case against him was eventually dropped by the anti-graft agency, but not before a public outcry over Widodo's wavering.

"These days they (Widodo and Megawati) talk less frequently. There is definitely a problem with communication between PDI-P and Jokowi," said PDI-P official Andreas Pareira, using Widodo's popular local nickname.

Megawati declined to comment for this article.

For some foreign investors, Widodo's floundering threatens to dampen sentiment at a time when the economy is growing at its slowest pace in five years and needs a kickstart from investment in infrastructure and manufacturing.

"Six months in we're still facing a big question mark about whether Jokowi is really in the driver's seat," said Jakob Sorensen, head of the European Business Chamber of Commerce in Jakarta.

In a rare speech in English, Widodo told a business forum this week: "Please come and invest in Indonesia. Because where we see challenges, I see opportunity. And if you have any problem, call me."