Challenges for Jokowi’s second Term: Improving Human Development

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED

CANCELLED

Professor Anne Booth (SOAS)

Abstract

The parliamentary and presidential elections in April, 2019 passed off peacefully, and the official results released on May 21 gave Jokowi 55.5 per cent of the votes, and his opponent, Prabowo Subianto, 44.5 per cent. The election results raised fears in some quarters that Indonesia was becoming more polarised along religious lines; Jokowi polled strongly in Central and East Java, in Bali and in provinces in Sulawesi and Sumatra with substantial Christian minorities, while Prabowo drew much of his support in West Java, South Sulawesi and some parts of Sumatra. On the other hand, the results also showed that many Moslems in Indonesia continue to support Jokowi’s brand of moderate Islam, and also gave their votes to secular political parties, rather than those advocating more explicit “Islamic” values.

Jokowi made several statements in early 2019 that, if elected to a second term, he would switch the focus of government spending from infrastructure, on which he claimed that considerable progress had been made, to human resource development. (HRD).  In this seminar I will look at the specific challenges facing Indonesia in HRD, especially in health. Many Indonesians suffer from poor diet and poor sanitation and inadequate access to clean water. These problems are linked to other health problems in Indonesia which have attracted considerable international attention in recent years, including child stunting (low height for age) and wasting (low weight for height) and a high incidence of anaemia, especially among expectant mothers which is probably one reason for high maternal mortality rates. According to several recent rankings, Indonesia does not score well on a range of health indicators compared with neighbouring countries, including Vietnam, where per capita GDP is considerably lower than in Indonesia. In my presentation, I will discuss these challenges and what the Jokowi administration can do to address them.

Speaker Biography

Anne Booth has taught at SOAS since 1991, and has had a long-standing interest in economic development in Asia, with a particular focus on Indonesia. Her most recent book, Living Standards in Southeast Asia: Changes over the Long Twentieth Century, 1900-215 is published by Amsterdam University Press

Organiser: SOAS Centre of South East Asian Studies

Contact email: centres@soas.ac.uk

Contact Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4893