A polarizing election for Jakarta governor saw Islamic identity politics come to the fore and exposed fractures in Indonesian president Joko Widodo’s fragile ruling coalition, an exit poll has revealed.
Widodo’s political ally Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the ethnic Chinese Christian incumbent, was resoundingly defeated by Muslim rival Anies Baswedan in a vote seen as a litmus test of the secular traditions of the world’s largest Muslim-majority country.
Unpublished data from an exit poll by Litbang Kompas, which Reuters reviewed, found “same religion” was by far the most common reason why voters supported the victor.
Just under 34 per cent of the 1,289 respondents surveyed at 400 polling stations across the Indonesian capital cited religion as the primary reason for backing Baswedan, followed by 14.9 per cent who cited “being with the common people”.
More @ Reuters
I guess this is a good outcome. Who knows? I generally like for people to be ruled by their own.
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly possible the Christian was a good ruler.
Absolutely.
DeleteClash of civilizations
ReplyDeleteThat was one of the R&R sites from Vietnam, but it had no interest to me. Australia, Thailand and the Philippines, yes. Liked Cambodia and Laos also, but not Taiwan. Actually the only places I went on R&R were Thailand, Taiwan and Australia. The others when I was a civilian either with DOD or the Embassy. Went to Thailand many times and out of all, Vietnam was hard to beat.
Delete