Cabinets Despite vowing during the 2014 campaign not to distribute government posts simply to political allies, Jokowi's first cabinet included many members of political parties. During the first year of his administration, he led a
minority government until
Golkar, the second-largest party in the
People's Representative Council (DPR), switched from the opposition to the governing coalition. Jokowi denied accusations that he had interfered in Golkar's internal affairs, although he acknowledged that Luhut might have influenced the shift. His
minister of industry,
Airlangga Hartarto, was elected chairman of Golkar in 2018. The
National Mandate Party (PAN) had also moved into the government camp earlier, but returned to the opposition in 2018. Jokowi announced the 34 members of his first cabinet on 26 October 2014. It was praised for the inclusion of women, with
Retno Marsudi becoming Indonesia's first female foreign minister, but also drew criticism for several appointments seen as politically motivated, including that of
Puan Maharani, daughter of
Megawati Sukarnoputri. His administration also created two new ministries—the Ministry of Public Works and Housing and the
Ministry of Environment and Forestry—through mergers of existing ministries, while renaming and reorganising others. Jokowi carried out three cabinet reshuffles by 2018, removing ministers such as
Rizal Ramli and
Bambang Brodjonegoro while bringing in figures including Luhut and former
World Bank managing director
Sri Mulyani Indrawati. A further reshuffle followed in December 2020, replacing six ministers, including two who had been apprehended by the KPK. in October 2019|250x250px Jokowi was criticised by PDI-P over what it saw as weaknesses in his policies, and PDI-P legislator
Effendi Simbolon called for his impeachment. On 9 April 2015, during a PDI-P congress, party leader
Megawati Sukarnoputri referred to Jokowi as a party functionary. She noted that presidential candidates are nominated by political parties, implying that Jokowi owed his position to the party and should follow its policy line. Several months earlier, Megawati and Jokowi had disagreed over the appointment of a new police chief, with Megawati backing Budi Gunawan, her former adjutant, while Jokowi preferred
Badrodin Haiti. After his re-election, Jokowi announced his second cabinet on 23 October 2019. He retained several ministers, including Sri Mulyani and Luhut, while also appointing
Gojek founder
Nadiem Makarim and his two-time presidential rival
Prabowo Subianto as education and defence ministers, respectively. In the first year of his second term, Jokowi's approval rating fell to 45.2 per cent, while his disapproval rating rose to 52 per cent. His deputy, Ma'ruf Amin, had a 67 per cent disapproval rating. The decline was attributed to unpopular policies. By early 2023, however, Jokowi's approval rating had reached an all-time high of 76.2 per cent after the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.
Politics after the
2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami Early in his first term, the opposition coalition in the DPR attempted to revoke a regulation (
Perppu, Government Regulation in Lieu of Acts) issued by Jokowi's predecessor that had guaranteed direct regional elections in Indonesia, overriding an earlier law that provided for indirect elections. Jokowi supported direct regional elections and opposed efforts to revoke the regulation, stating that "direct regional elections was, in principle, non-negotiable". Within the first three years of his administration, he issued four such
Perppu. Jokowi's government, which included parties that had opposed him in presidential elections, has been described as a
big tent government and, by former Singaporean foreign minister
George Yeo, as "democracy with Javanese characteristics". After his re-election in 2019, a number of prominent politicians began floating the idea of amending the constitution to allow Jokowi to seek a third term in 2024. Cabinet figures who voiced support for extending term limits included coordinating ministers
Airlangga Hartarto and
Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. The proposal gained greater prominence after the
COVID-19 pandemic, amid claims that government programmes in his second term had been disrupted. By April 2022, however, Jokowi had explicitly stated that he would not seek a third term and ordered his cabinet to stop publicly discussing either a term-limit extension or an election delay. Although he was not running for a third term, Jokowi told media outlets that he would not be a neutral actor and that he would "meddle" in the
2024 presidential election. He also met political party leaders in his capacity as president. In September 2023, during a public rally, he said that he possessed intelligence information gathered by government agencies, including
BIN and
BAIS, on the internal workings of political parties. In October 2023, Constitutional Court chief justice
Anwar Usman, Jokowi's brother-in-law, issued a ruling that created a loophole in the minimum age requirement for presidential and vice-presidential candidates, allowing Jokowi's son
Gibran Rakabuming Raka to run as Prabowo's running mate in 2024. Usman was later reprimanded by a judicial panel over the ruling and removed as chief justice. On 12 February 2024, investigative journalist
Dandhy Laksono released
Dirty Vote, a documentary on YouTube alleging that Jokowi had used state funds to support Prabowo's campaign. Prabowo went on to win the election by a wide margin, which a number of analysts attributed to Jokowi's backing. Jokowi was later also accused of interfering in the
2024 Indonesian local elections because of controversies over candidate-age requirements, notably affecting his son
Kaesang Pangarep, and over political support, notably affecting
Anies Baswedan, a prominent critic of his administration. Near the end of his second term, however, Jokowi's relationship with PDI-P deteriorated because he backed
Prabowo in the
2024 presidential campaign rather than his own party's candidate,
Ganjar Pranowo; Jokowi's eldest son,
Gibran Rakabuming Raka, also ran as Prabowo's vice-presidential candidate. On 22 April 2024, after the Constitutional Court rejected all claims and disputes relating to the 2024 presidential election, the PDI-P Honorary Council declared that Jokowi and Gibran were no longer members of the party, confirming their break with PDI-P. Even so, they were allowed to retain their membership cards as a gesture of respect for Jokowi as the sitting president and Gibran as the incoming vice president, although the cards no longer carried any rights within the party. The expulsion was declared complete on 4 December 2024.
Law and human rights Judicial executions in Indonesia are carried out under a presidential decree following a death sentence imposed by a trial court. Jokowi in 2015 said he would not grant
clemency for drug offenders sentenced to death, arguing Indonesia was in a
state of emergency over
drug-related crimes, citing statistics the
Jakarta Globe reported to be faulty. His stance drew criticism as it could harm relations with the native countries of the condemned convicts, and also imperil Indonesians facing the death penalty abroad. Australia, Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors from Indonesia following multiple executions in 2015. Australia reduced its foreign aid to Indonesia by nearly half, and
Amnesty International issued a condemnation saying they showed a "complete disregard for due process and human rights safeguards". Former
Indonesian Constitutional Court chief justice
Jimly Asshiddiqie, who was a key player in the anti-death penalty lobby in Jakarta, said the push for the execution of Australians
Myuran Sukumaran and
Andrew Chan had come from Jokowi personally.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Jokowi did not have or read related documents when he refused their clemency requests. In the same year, Jokowi granted Frenchman Serge Atlaoui and
Filipino Mary Jane Veloso temporary reprieves due to pending legal appeals. Regarding terrorism, Jokowi's administration in early 2016 proposed replacing the 2003 anti-terrorism law. Following the 2018
Surabaya bombings, the worst terrorist attack on Indonesian soil since the
2002 Bali bombings, the controversial bill passed, allowing the
Indonesian National Armed Forces to participate in
counter-terrorism activities upon police request and presidential approval. It also allowed extended detention of terror suspects and permitted wiretapping without initial court approval. Jokowi had threatened to issue a presidential regulation in lieu of law (
Perppu) if the bill did not pass the parliament by June that year. During Jokowi's administration, there have been numerous instances where people were arrested or reported to police for activities deemed insulting to the president. Rights activists deem such arrests as a violation of the
Constitution's guarantee of freedom of speech. A group claiming to be Jokowi's supporters reported
Tempo magazine to police over a caricature of Jokowi as
Pinocchio, after which the Presidential Palace issued a statement saying "the President respected freedom of press and speech". A book about Jokowi titled
Jokowi Undercover was banned upon release and its author sentenced to three years in prison and buyers of the book being advised to surrender their copies to the authorities.
Tempo magazine described the 436-page book as "trashy and tasteless, a compilation of hoax reports on President Joko Widodo, scattered across the internet and cyber chatrooms". The government's plans to resurrect a Dutch colonial law that would permit imprisonment for insulting the president
resulted in widespread protests. A Law Firm and Public Interest Law Office (AMAR) institution later reported following the protests that they received many complaints of students regarding threats and sanctions of expulsion or suspension from their schools and universities. In addition, a remission granted to a journalist's murderer was revoked following media criticism. were held across the country against some controversial policies.|251x251px In response to major protests, Jokowi's administration has generated some controversies. On 22 May 2019, amid post-election riots by supporters of losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, the government limited the speed at which photos and videos could be shared on social media to stop people from being incited by fake news and calls for violence. In the aftermath,
Amnesty International's Indonesian office denounced repressive measures against the demonstrators, condemned them as a grave human rights abuse and demanded the government investigate the extrajudicial executions in the clashes. In August and September 2019, the government blocked internet access in Papua and West Papua provinces amid
violent protests against racism. Jakarta State Administrative Court in 2020 ruled the internet blocks in Papua illegal. In 2017, Jokowi supported a controversial bill on mass organisations, which upon passing resulted in the disbandment of the Indonesian branch of
Hizb ut-Tahrir. He argued the law was necessary to defend the national ideology,
Pancasila. The 2020 banning of the
Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) was also based on that law. Twenty-three days' earlier, police had shot dead six FPI members during a confrontation. The president's subsequent defence of the police during their duty and his statement that no citizens should break the law or harm the country was criticised by FPI secretary-general Munarman as a justification of human rights abuse and
structural violence. A police chief involved in the car chase and subsequent murder claimed that the members were armed. his presidency has been criticised for "neo-authoritarianism". The
South China Morning Post even named him 'Little
Suharto.' A premium price hike of public health care
BPJS Kesehatan through Executive Order (
Perpres) 64/2020 was criticised as a flagrant breach of permanent
Supreme Court (
Mahkamah Agung) decision that nullified the
Perpres 82/2018 about the price hike. The
Perpres 64/2020 itself was signed amid the COVID-19 pandemic that had caused hardship among the population. His former deputy mayor of Surakarta,
F. X. Hadi Rudyatmo, also voiced similar concerns. Jokowi's presidency coincided with the 50th anniversary of the
Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66 in 2015. A government-supported symposium to resolve human rights violations surrounding the event was held in 2016, but Jokowi said his government would not apologise to the victims of the mass purge. On
LGBT rights, Jokowi stated that "there should be no discrimination against anyone", but added that "in terms of our beliefs, [the LGBT lifestyle] isn't allowed, Islam does not allow it." Under his presidency, the controversial
transmigration program was cut once more, when in 2015, it was decided to end the migration program to the Papuan provinces. Following the July 2022
murder of Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat, an Indonesian police officer, there were allegations of police involvement in a cover-up. Police chief General
Listyo Sigit Prabowo took over the investigation, forming a special team including members of the Human Rights Commission and Police Commissions. Jokowi was keen for the force to be open about what happens: "Open it as it is. No cover-up. Transparent. That's it. This is important so that the people don't have doubts over the incident that occurred. This is what has to be maintained. Public trust in the police must be maintained." In August 2022, Hutabarat's former superior, Inspector General Ferdy Sambo, head of internal affairs of the Indonesian National Police, along with three others, was charged with Hutabarat's murder. On 27 December 2023, hundreds of students from various universities in
Aceh, such as Abulyatama University, Bina Bangsa Getsempena University, and
University of Muhammadiyah Aceh, stormed a shelter for
Rohingya refugees and forced them out of a convention center in the city of
Banda Aceh, demanding them to be deported. The students were also seen kicking the belongings of the Rohingya men, women, and children who were seated on the floor and crying in fear. They burned tires and chanted "Kick them out" and "Reject Rohingya in Aceh." Joko Widodo later responded by inviting society to maintain tolerance and peace and to unite in maintaining a sense of unity, cooperation, and humanity, as well as being alert to world crises, such as food and economic crises, disputes between nations, and war. On 31 January 2024, a group of faculty members at
Gadjah Mada University, which Jokowi attended, issued the Bulaksumur petition, criticizing Jokowi's presidency and calling on Jokowi to uphold democracy and social justice.
Economy Before taking office, Jokowi sought to have outgoing president
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) take responsibility for a further increase in fuel prices through further cuts to subsidies. Previous attempts by SBY to do so had led to civil unrest. The policy prompted demonstrations, which Jokowi said were necessary to redirect spending toward infrastructure, education and health. From March 2015, however, the government set the price of Premium-branded petrol below market rates, effectively shifting the subsidy burden to the state-owned oil company
Pertamina rather than the central government budget. The government also introduced a single-price policy aimed at selling fuel through official channels at the same price across the country, including in remote parts of
Kalimantan and
Papua. It said this target had been achieved by 2017. In the first quarter of 2015, year-on-year GDP growth was 4.92 per cent, and in the second quarter it fell to 4.6 per cent, the lowest figure since 2009. Growth later remained above 5 per cent, though still below levels some observers regarded as desirable for the economy. The
Indonesian rupiah (IDR) also weakened during Jokowi's administration: its exchange rate against the
U.S. dollar briefly passed IDR 15,000 in 2018, its lowest level since the
1997 Asian financial crisis, and fell further to 16,700 in 2020. Year-on-year inflation in June 2015 was 7.26 per cent, higher than in May (7.15 per cent) and in June the previous year (6.7 per cent). In 2016, the administration signed a
tax amnesty law after a lengthy public debate and pushback, allowing wealthy Indonesians to declare previously unreported assets before the government tightened rules and oversight over imports and exports. It became the most successful programme of its kind in history, with more than IDR 4,865 trillion (approximately US$366 billion) in previously undeclared assets reported to the tax office. in
Glasgow, Scotland on 1 November 2021 Infrastructure development was a major feature of the Jokowi administration, with an emphasis on roads, railways, seaports, airports and irrigation. In 2016, the state budget allocated Rp 290 trillion (US$22 billion) to infrastructure, the largest such allocation in Indonesian history at the time. In total, his administration planned 265 infrastructure projects beginning in 2016. In September 2015, Indonesia awarded a $5.5 billion
high-speed rail project to China, disappointing Japan, which had also sought the contract. Indonesia's transport ministry later listed numerous shortcomings in the project's plans, casting doubt on its viability and highlighting the administration's difficulties in turning mega-projects into reality while seeking foreign investment. Other major projects included the completion of the 4,325-kilometre
Trans Papua road and the
Trans-Java Toll Road, the start of construction on the
Trans-Sulawesi Railway, and the
Trans-Sumatra Toll Road, a US$50 billion plan to develop the maritime sector, including 24 "strategic ports", and the expansion of airport capacity in remote areas. The port development and modernisation programme, known as the
Sea Toll Road, was intended to reduce price disparities between the more developed western regions and the less populated eastern regions of the country. The opposition criticised the scale of infrastructure spending, noting that Indonesia's national debt rose by 48 per cent between 2014 and March 2018 to US$181 billion. They also argued that much of the debt had been used for remuneration rather than infrastructure development. In April 2018, Jokowi also introduced a policy allowing foreign workers in Indonesia to work without an Indonesian-language requirement, arguing that this would increase investment. The measure faced significant opposition from labour unions, which argued that it would raise unemployment. During the
2019 presidential election campaign, Jokowi introduced the , a training-assistance programme intended to improve workforce skills through training, retraining and upskilling. It was introduced alongside the and the . Eligible recipients of the Pre-Employment Card received training funds of IDR 1,000,000, which could be used on partner digital platforms. More than 150 training institutions provided courses that could be purchased and followed online from anywhere. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, the government shifted the Pre-Employment Card into a semi-social assistance programme to help workers affected by layoffs and recent graduates entering the labour market. To expand its reach, the budget was doubled to IDR 20 trillion. When the programme was launched in April 2020, the government said it was intended to reduce the cost of training for workers and companies, lower the cost of accessing information about training, improve the skills and competitiveness of Indonesian workers, and supplement formal education. The programme, however, remained limited to online training. In 2020, the DPR passed the
Omnibus Law on Job Creation. Although it was intended to boost investment and reduce
red tape, it was also widely seen as weakening labour and environmental protections, prompting a
series of protests in major cities. Jokowi defended the law as necessary for job creation and urged protesters to challenge it through the
Constitutional Court of Indonesia. The law, which revised more than 70 existing laws and contained around 1,200 clauses, had been proposed by Jokowi after his 2019 re-election. Several groups criticised the government's lack of transparency during its deliberation. In the same year, Indonesia recorded its lowest inflation rate on record and experienced its first recession since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. In November 2021, Jokowi promised at the
COP26 climate summit to end and reverse
deforestation in Indonesia by 2030 as part of the summit's first major agreement. The
European Commission later approved a measure to phase out
palm oil-based
biofuels by 2030. During a meeting with European Commission President
Ursula von der Leyen, Jokowi expressed concern about the
EU Regulation on Deforestation-free products (EUDR), which aims to prevent products linked to
deforestation from entering the EU market. The Jokowi administration continued its predecessor's policy of
resource nationalism, increasing government shareholding in multinational companies such as
Freeport McMoRan,
TotalEnergies and
Chevron. In 2018, in a move intended to reduce imports, oil companies operating in Indonesia were ordered to sell their crude oil to state-owned
Pertamina. A ban was also imposed on exports of raw nickel ore to encourage the growth of domestic nickel-related industries such as smelters and battery factories. The policy was later extended, with export bans on unprocessed copper, tin, bauxite and gold ores expected to take effect in mid-2023. By 2023,
Indonesian nickel exports had risen from US$3 billion annually to US$30 billion.
Foreign policy at the
2022 G20 Bali summit, 14 November 2022 Before Jokowi's election, Indonesia's foreign policy was shaped by his predecessor's dictum of "a thousand friends and zero enemies." Jokowi outlined a three-pronged foreign policy centred on maintaining Indonesia's sovereignty, improving protection for Indonesian citizens, and intensifying economic diplomacy. Indonesian foreign policy during his tenure has been described as "pragmatic and inward-looking", with a strong emphasis on economic development and investment. During his ten years in office, he did not attend a session of the
United Nations General Assembly, although he addressed it virtually in 2020 and 2021. As part of this vision, Jokowi adopted a tougher stance on
illegal fishing. He said that Jakarta could no longer tolerate a situation in which more than 5,000 vessels were operating illegally in Indonesian waters each day, making a mockery of Indonesian sovereignty and causing annual losses of more than $20 billion. On the
territorial disputes in the South China Sea, particularly around the
Natuna Islands, where China's
nine-dash line overlaps with Indonesian
EEZ claims, Jokowi stated that "there will be no compromise on sovereignty", and renamed Indonesia's section of the
South China Sea the "North Natuna Sea". In June 2016, he held a cabinet meeting off the islands aboard the
Indonesian Navy corvette
KRI Imam Bonjol, calling for increased maritime patrols in the area. Under his administration, Indonesia also released an "Indo-Pacific Vision" for
ASEAN countries, which treated the
Indian and
Pacific Oceans as a single interconnected geostrategic area and called for a regional architecture built on cooperation. Indonesia further entered a trilateral agreement with Malaysia and the Philippines allowing coordinated patrols in the pirate-infested
Sulu Sea. In the Muslim world, Jokowi called on leaders at the
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in
Jakarta to unite in support of reconciliation and
Palestinian independence. Under Jokowi, Indonesia's foreign minister visited Palestine but rejected calls to establish bilateral diplomatic relations with Israel. An
honorary consul was established in
Ramallah in the
West Bank, though it had to be inaugurated in
Amman, Jordan. Jokowi also condemned the
persecution of Rohingya Muslims in
Myanmar and oversaw the dispatch of four
Indonesian Air Force transport planes carrying 34 tons of relief supplies for
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. In October 2021, he advocated
COVID-19 vaccine equity, urging richer countries to share vaccines with poorer ones. In response to the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, Jokowi visited both countries in July 2022, meeting Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President
Vladimir Putin while emphasizing the need for
peace and the restoration of global food supply chains. Although the visits did not contribute directly to a peace settlement, Jokowi was praised for the effort as a mediator. As Indonesia hosted the
2022 G20 Summit later that year, Jokowi also invited Zelenskyy to attend, while resisting calls to revoke Russia's invitation to the summit. During a press conference at the White House on 14 November 2023, Jokowi called for a ceasefire in the
Gaza war, "for the sake of humanity", and urged U.S. President
Joe Biden to do more to end "atrocities" in the
Gaza Strip. On 11 October 2024, two Indonesian
TNI soldiers serving as
UNIFIL peacekeepers were injured by
IDF tank fire at the UNIFIL headquarters in
Naqoura, southern
Lebanon. In response, Jokowi called for caution amid the apparent
escalation and widening of the Israel-Hamas War to Lebanon.
New capital By April 2019, it had become public that Jokowi had decided in a cabinet meeting to move the
capital of Indonesia away from Jakarta to a location outside
Java. On 25 August 2019, it was announced that the new capital would be located in
Kalimantan, between the regencies of
Penajam North Paser and
Kutai Kartanegara. On 30 July 2024, Jokowi began working in the new capital,
Nusantara. ==Post-presidency==