By: Dwi Agustina *
When elected as President, the jargon chosen by Joko Widodo is Work, Work, Work !. Now the Working Cabinet under President Joko Widodo’s administration has lasted for four years, on October 20, 2018. Until the four years of his reign, the government’s achievements have been compiled in a large narrative entitled “Building Indonesia, Towards a Advanced Country”, which consists of five pillars, namely (1) Economic Development and Increasing Competitiveness, (2) Welfare Improvement and Affirmative Policy, ( 3) Strengthening Indonesian Sentris, (4) Increasing Political and Security Stability, law enforcement, and Governance, and (5) Promoting Culture and National Achievement.
With a focus on infrastructure development to reduce inequality between regions, the dream of social justice for all Indonesian people is now beginning to appear. the focus on infrastructure is done so as to increase national competitiveness and equitable development outcomes. During the four years of government, 310 kilometers of toll roads have been built, 441 km of railway lines, 5 new airports, 410 new ports, 9,653 SPAM services, and 366,404 irrigation networks. As for infrastructure development, the government’s focus is on economic transformation without having to move people from agriculture to industry. A number of infrastructures have been built by Jokowi with the goal of economic justice. One of the highlights is infrastructure development in Papua. From the data from the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR), in the Jokowi era, at least 3,103 kilometers of a total of 3,259 kilometers of Trans Papua road were broken.
Not only infrastructure, the policies of the Jokowi government are very siding with the “Little People” and touching the grassroots level, call it Healthy Indonesia Card, Smart Indonesia Card, Health BPJS, etc. Then the Jokowi government commitment to building starts from the periphery the amount of village funds disbursed by the Jokowi government, until 2018 Jokowi had poured 180 trillion rupiah into village programs, which were derived in three stages, namely 20 trillion in 2015, 40 trillion in 2016, 40 trillion in 2017 and 60 trillion in 2018 this.
Then what about the economy? Economic growth grew by around 5.3%, of course this is good amid the uncertainty of the world economy, then inflation can also be controlled, which is around 3.5 percent. In fact, in June 2018, the government succeeded in reducing inflation by 0.59 percent. This figure is the lowest compared to the past seven years. The open unemployment rate was claimed to fall to only 5.13 percent in February 2018 and the percentage of poverty fell from 11.22 percent in March 2015 to 9.82 percent in March 2018. Nevertheless, the government continued to provide welfare guarantees for the community, namely with assistance programs social programs such as the Hope Family Program (PKH). Then, after a 71-year-old independent Indonesia in the Jokowi era, border residents in Krayan Nunukan were able to buy Pertamina Solar with special subsidies for Rp.5,150 per liter, as well as 71 years in Puncak Jaya Papua in the Jokowi era. the first with a premium price which was originally Rp.50,000, can go down to Rp.6,500. Liter.
The government has issued several policies to encourage the development of creative and digital economics through the making of Presidential Regulations concerning e-commerce road maps. In addition, there are also regulations related to financial technology issued by relevant authorities. Furthermore, investment and trade are said to be improving with the competitiveness of Indonesian investments judged to have increased gradually, both in general and in the infrastructure sector. This is reflected in Indonesia’s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) ranking at level 45 in 2018, better than the Philippines (56th) and Vietnam (77th). In particular, infrastructure competitiveness ranks improved from 61 in 2013-2014 to 52 in 2017-2018.
Joko Widodo – Jusuf Kalla’s Government, Ministry of Defense recorded a number of achievements and achievements in programs in the field of national defense. The program’s achievements began with achievements in the program of building a professional TNI, border security programs, programs to realize world peace, a strong, independent and competitive domestic defense industry development program, to the achievement of the State Defense Awareness Development program (PKBN).
That is a row of performance achievements of Jokowi’s government, the personality of government leaders namely Jokowi is an important factor towards the rise of national optimism, Jokowi’s sincere nature is the dominant factor of his success in leading the government for four years. Although hit by slander, insults, and utterances of hatred from those who opposed him, President Jokowi did not budge. He still works for the progress of the country. The people are the goal. These achievements must be continued in the future. There is still a lot of homework and must be completed so that the NKRI becomes a dignified country and its people prosper. We as a society may not agree with some of the current government policies. We certainly may raise criticism on that. But we must also be fair to appreciate the success that the government has made.
*) Udayana University Economic Students