Sara Djojohadikusumo – A Name to Watch

As an avid consumer of podcasts, I keep my eyes (or should that be ears?) open for podcasts about Indonesian politics and have just started listening to the PinterPolitik podcast. It is produced by a site that describes itself as the ‘Political Voice of Indonesian Millennials’. Although most of the podcast episodes are in Indonesian, one recent edition was an English language interview with Sara Djojohadikusumo. She is a former member of parliament and a current candidate to be deputy mayor of South Tangerang. In the interview she spoke about idealism, money politics, and the challenges and possibilities presented by being a young, female, Christian politician in contemporary Indonesia. She also described being called by God to get involved in politics. She did not directly address her family background, as daughter Hashim Djojohadikusumo (estimated net worth as of 2019 $800 million) and niece of Prabowo Subianto (former presidential candidate and current Minister of Defence). Jemma Purdey, who has conducted research the Djojohadikusumo dynasty, recently wrote an interesting profile that argued that Sara was ‘track to take over Gerindra’ once Prabowo is off the scene. In this context, the interview I mention above is an interesting insight into the thinking of someone who is likely to play an increasingly important role of the national stage in the future.