at the Indonesian Embassy, 30 Great Peter Street, London (In-person only)
We welcomed the new year with a presentation about President
Joko Widodo and the forthcoming political transition in Indonesia, followed by a three-course Indonesian buffet dinner
(£25 per person, including wine. Full details below)
Note: The meeting was not broadcasted via Zoom. It was in-person only. Apologies for any inconvenience
Indonesia under President Jokowi and prospects for international collaboration following the 2024 general election
by Ben Bland, Director of the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House and the
author of Man of Contradictions: Joko Widodo and the Struggle to Remake Indonesia
With the general election scheduled for 14 February 2024, President Joko Widodo is preparing to step down after reaching the two-term constitutional limit. From October 2024, Indonesia will have a new president and vice-president.
This talk discussed President Jokowi’s track record after nearly a decade in office, his enduring popularity, his legacy in the framework of Indonesian history, and the future of Indonesia and its international relations under new leadership.
The discussion was conducted under Chatham House rules (which means you can discuss afterwards what was said but not attribute anything to any individual).
A long-time Indonesia-phile, Ben first visited the archipelago as a backpacker in 2001 and subsequently built a career working in Indonesia, Southeast Asia and China as a journalist, writer and foreign policy analyst. He lived in Jakarta on two separate occasions and has travelled across Indonesia from Manado to Cirebon and Sabang to Kupang on almost every imaginable form of transportation.
Before joining Chatham House, Ben ran the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute, an international think-tank in Sydney. Before that he was a correspondent for the Financial Times, based in China, Indonesia and Vietnam. He has an MA in Southeast Asian Studies from SOAS, University of London and an MA in History from the University of Cambridge.
The dinner was immediately after the talk, at approximately 7.45.