Indonesia Update 2024: How Jokowi changed Indonesia

About the 41st Indonesia Update conference: How Jokowi changed Indonesia

During a decade of governing Indonesia, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has emerged as one of the most popular, but also most polarising, political figures in the post-Reformasi period. Jokowi’s supporters have lauded his remarkable evolution from an outsider with little clout among the country’s political elite to a formidable powerbroker, pushing through hard-hitting and often controversial reforms. Jokowi’s critics, on the other hand, have assailed his government’s coercive approach to political opponents, and his pursuit of a grand economic vision at the cost of democratic freedoms and institutional integrity. Regardless of which side of the debate one is on, however, there is no denying Jokowi’s enduring popularity with a public that sees their president as a hardworking man of the people.

The 2024 Indonesia Update Conference will take a broad view of Jokowi’s legacy. To tell this story, we need to first recall the Indonesia that President Yudhoyono left behind: a stable democracy and economy, but one in which governance was characterised by policy inertia and stagnation. The Jokowi years, on the other hand, have been anything but stagnant. Instead, to hit policy targets across a range of sectors, the president and his team have pushed institutions to their limits, revealing both the weaknesses and strengths of Indonesia’s democratic rules, regulations and norms. But how far has Jokowi truly transformed Indonesia? To answer this question, the Conference will bring together experts from Australia, Indonesia, and around the world. We will examine the mark that Jokowi has left on the country’s economy, welfare, politics, security, environment, and international relations