JAKARTA
\nBy his own admission, Gibran Rakabuming Raka was a \u201cnobody\u201d a few months before Indonesia\u2019s elections.Now, the eldest son of President Joko Widodo looks set to become the country\u2019s youngest-ever vice president.
\nGibran\u2019s meteoric rise to running mate of president-in-waiting Prabowo Subianto, who declared victory last week, was fuelled by his father\u2019s wild popularity.\u201dThree months ago I was a nobody. I thank Sir Prabowo who has given room for young people like me,\u201d Gibran, 36, told a packed arena in the capital Jakarta after polls closed on February 14.
\n\u201cI believe these high figures were because of the young people. \u201cOfficial results show Defence Minister Prabowo\u2019s ticket winning a majority with more than two-thirds of votes counted. The final result is due next month.Gibran\u2019s success in the polls has raised questions over the influence of Jokowi, as the president is popularly known, with critics accusing him of seeking to install a political dynasty before he leaves office.
\nGrowing up Gibran was set to follow in his father\u2019s furniture salesman footsteps after studying in Singapore and Australia, but he moved into catering and created a business selling traditional Indonesian dishes. He first stepped into politics while his father was serving as president in 2021, winning the mayorship of Central Java\u2019s Surakarta city \u2014 Jokowi\u2019s old job.
\nGibran ran on behalf of his father\u2019s ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) but later turned his back on it to run with Prabowo, an ex-general accused of atrocities under the rule of dictator Suharto in the late 1990s.
\nJokowi, barred from a third term, leaves office in October, but the idea of another Widodo carrying on his policies has broad appeal in the country. Indonesia enjoyed steady growth over his two terms and Jokowi is enjoying near-record approval ratings, so his tacit support strapped an election rocket to the Prabowo-Gibran ticket.
\n\u201cWhen people see Gibran, they will see Jokowi,\u201d said Ujang Komarudin, a political analyst from Jakarta-based Al Azhar University. But \u201cthe big, strategic matters will be determined by Prabowo,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JAKARTA By his own admission, Gibran Rakabuming Raka was a \u201cnobody\u201d a few months before Indonesia\u2019s elections.Now, the eldest son of President Joko Widodo looks set to become the country\u2019s youngest-ever vice president. Gibran\u2019s meteoric rise to running mate of president-in-waiting Prabowo Subianto, who declared victory last week, was fuelled by his father\u2019s wild popularity.\u201dThree […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389901,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-389875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n