Watch: From Jokowi to Prabowo: Perspectives from the ANU Indonesia Update

Indonesia is in the countdown to the October presidential transition from Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to Prabowo Subianto, who won a decisive victory in the April presidential election. Hugely ambitious and popular, Jokowi leaves a complex legacy, including strained democratic institutions, the politicisation of the police and military, and an at times transactional foreign policy that benefited China's standing.

This panel draws on perspectives presented at the 2024 Australian National University Indonesia Update conference to explore the legacy of Jokowi's presidency and the direction Prabowo may now seek to steer Indonesia.

Eve Warburton is a senior lecturer at the Department of Political and Social Change in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, and Director of ANU's Indonesia Institute at the College of Asia and the Pacific. Her research focuses on representation, governance, and business-state relations in young and developing democracies, with a regional focus on Southeast Asia and Indonesia. Her book, Resource Nationalism in Indonesia: Booms, Big Business and the State, was published by Cornell University Press in 2023.

Sidney Jones is Senior Adviser to the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) in Jakarta, a non-governmental research organisation she founded in 2013. She has previously worked with the International Crisis Group, the Ford Foundation, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, and served as chief of the human rights office of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). Jones holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Marcus Mietzner is Associate Professor at the Department of Political and Social Change, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University. He has published extensively on Indonesian politics and his latest book is The Coalitions Presidents Make: Presidential Power and its Limits in Democratic Indonesia (Cornell University Press, 2023). He is currently writing a book on the Jokowi presidency based on interviews with the outgoing president and other key actors.

Rizal Sukma is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Indonesia. He previously served as Indonesia's Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Ireland and the International Maritime Organization from 2016 to 2020, and as Executive Director of CSIS from 2009 to 2015. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The panel was moderated by Susannah Patton, Director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute.