RIDWAN Kamil seems to have received instant karma. In the run-up to polling day, a number of political parties endorsed him in 2024 Jakarta regional elections for the headsuch as the NasDem Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the National Mandate Party (PAN) began to abandon it. Ridwan Kamil he should have realized from the beginning that the political support from the parties supporting him was not sincere.

Having just joined the Golkar Party, Ridwan was supported by it, along with other parties calling themselves the “Continuing Indonesia (KIM) Plus Coalition” in his Jakarta gubernatorial bid. At least 12 parties have joined this grouping, supporting the former West Java governor, who is running alongside Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) politician Suswono.

Apart from the Gerindra Party and Golkar, the other parties supported Ridwan due to pressure from President Joko Widodo, who did not want them to support him Anies Baswedanor rather, he wanted to stop Anies from winning the governorship of Jakarta. Earlier, PKS had associated Anies with one of its members, M. Sohibul Iman. And NasDem previously expressed support for Anies, but then decided on Ridwan Kamil.

Unfortunately, there is resistance from some people in Jakarta to Ridwan Kamil. When he visited Mbah Priok’s grave in North Jakarta in early September, people shouted at him to get off the podium, arguing that Jakarta was not Ridwan’s home. Jakmania, as supporters of the Persija Jakarta football club are known, oppose him too. Persija’s fiercest rival is Persib Bandung from West Java. When he was governor of West Java, Ridwan made a comment that was considered insulting to Persija.

With all this opposition and a coalition that is not solid, the party’s vote-gathering machine is not working optimally. In the last two months of the campaign and since the debate between the candidates, support for Ridwan Kamil-Suswono has steadily declined.

In the latest survey conducted by Lembaga Survei Indonesia, Ridwan-Suswono is on only 37.4 percent, while their rival, Pramono Anung-Rano Karno, has risen to 41.6 percent. The independent pair of Dharma Pongrekun-Kun Wardana is trailing by 6.6 percent, while 9.9 percent of voters have yet to make up their minds. While those percentages could rise or fall before polling day on November 27, polls still show Ridwan-Suswono down by 6.5%.

The Ridwan Kamil-Suswono pair, known as “Rido” for short, also made a number of blunders. Suswono made a joke about rich widows in Jakarta marrying unemployed youths to reduce unemployment as part of the strategy to bring prosperity to all. This statement drew condemnation and Suswono had to issue a clarification.

The Jakarta election shows that the gubernatorial candidates are standing without any clear or measurable vision or mission. The coalition supports them only based on short-term interests and not long-term commitments.

In the context of support for Ridwan Kamil and his opponents, the political parties and the coalition made a decision simply to anticipate a certain situation. As a result, support for them is fragile when the political situation changes. Without a clear vision and mission or any firm commitments from the candidates, it is the people who will lose out over the next five years.