Jokowi, Prabowo Are Foreign Investors' Choice As New Indonesian President

By Elmi Rizal Alias JAKARTA (Indonesia), April 17 (Bernama) -- Future presidential candidates, Joko Widodo or Jokowi from the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) and the Great Indonesian Movement (Gerindra) Party founder, Prabowo Subianto, are two leaders who have become foreign investors' choice as the new president of Indonesia. Standard Chartered senior economic analyst Fauzi Ichsan said the two leaders were said to be the frontrunners to replace President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, based on discussions among 20 foreign investors in Singapore prior to the Indonesian parliamentary elections on April 9. "They (foreign investors) consider, if not Jokowi, the alternative is Prabowo. So, the leaders seen by the investors are only two...If not Jokowi, it's Prabowo," he was quoted as saying in a report in Kompas (an Indonesia's leading & most credible news and multimedia portal), Wednesday. He however said the investors were quite disappointed with the votes garnered by PDI-P, at only 19.77 per cent, although it was ahead of 11 other parties in the recent general elections. Fauzi said this was because the investors expected PDI-P to be able to garner the popular votes of up to 27 per cent, and make the path easier for Jokowi to become president without having to merge with other parties to get enough votes. "Obviously, the projection was way off. Not even one party received more that 20 per cent of the popular votes during the parliamentary round. "This means there is political fragmentation in parliament. The investors are concerned that the cooperation with many parties would make policies inefficient," he said. --BERNAMA