TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - After obtaining business concessions, Haji Isam is going into politics. Building an oligarch power.
FROM Andi Syamsuddin Arsyad, alias Haji Isam, 48, we can learn how to become an oligarch. After a career in the business world, then influencing a number of government policies from behind the scenes, now he is trying his luck joining a political party. This September, if nothing goes wrong, he will join the United Development Party (PPP) by supporting his cousin, Andi Amran Sulaiman, a tycoon from Makassar, South Sulawesi, who is now Agriculture Minister, in the election for party general chair. By taking over the PPP, Isam will have a stronger bargaining position in the 2029 elections.
Two decades ago, Isam was a nobody. In his home village of Batulicin, Kota Baru, South Kalimantan, he was a truck driver before becoming a coal miner and then a businessman in the transportation and other strategic industry business sectors. At the beginning of May, together with ministers and businesspeople, he accompanied President Prabowo Subianto to a meeting with Microsoft founder Bill Gates at the Presidential Palace. In the same place at the end of December 2024, Prabowo invited Isam, owner of the Jhonlin Group, to meet with investors from Japan.
As a future oligarch, Isam could see which way the political wind was blowing. In two elections, he supported Joko Widodo when he ran against Prabowo Subianto. In 2024, he supported Prabowo, in line with Jokowi’s backing. When Prabowo was declared winner of the election, Isam moved quickly by participating in the food estate project in Merauke, Papua—before it was even clear which ministry would handle the project, given that the new government had not been formed. He brought 2,000 Chinese excavators to clear land.
The keyword is ‘generosity.’ Isam knows when he needs to extend a hand to ‘those in need’: from regional heads and ministers to officials in the central government and the president. He knows that not all transactions need to be concluded with binding ‘promises’—agreements only made by small-time traders. By establishing his position as an oligarch, all assistance will have political consequences that will be of benefit later.
A real oligarch does not say much—especially in front of officials he is approaching. And apparently this is what won over President Prabowo Subianto. When the other participants in a conversation discuss something, he does not pretend to know how to debate or argue. He remains quiet until the end of the conversation and then offers a solution that might contain conflicts of interest or give rise to problems of governance. His profile as a young native businessperson also benefited him at a time when the government prefers to promote entrepreneurs from this group.
Armed with ‘generosity’ and ‘modesty,’ Isam stepped on to the political stage. In the Red-and-White Cabinet appointed by Prabowo in October 2024, he was trusted to place four of his people in strategic positions. They are Dudy Purwagandhi (Transportation Minister), Dody Hanggodo (Public Works Minister), Amran Sulaiman (Agriculture Minister) and Budi Santoso (Trade Minister). Another source believes Isam got more positions, including deputy ministers.
If he is able to influence the government without an Islamic party, why is he going to the trouble of supporting his cousin for chair of the PPP? So far, there appears to be only one answer: in Indonesia, without a party, power is more vulnerable, especially when the sources of power and funds begin to fade away. Political compassion has limits.
Look at Jokowi, who does not have a party. His future is now dependent on Prabowo, whom he supported in the last election. Former presidents Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Megawati Sukarnoputri have been able to survive because they lead the Democrat Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), respectively. If Isam joins the PPP—albeit through Amran Sulaiman—he will have a stronger bargaining position.
For the PPP, Isam is clearly a blessing. Having failed to win the seats in the House of Representatives, the party needs capital. Frequently riven with internal conflicts that wreck party unity, the PPP does not have a financial backer. The presence of Isam—with his influence and networks—could be a boost to the party, which only won 3.87 percent of the vote in the 2024 election.
The oligarch Haji Isam is a dark story of politics controlled by a small number of rich people—to borrow from Richard Robison and Vedi Hadiz. Improvements to the electoral and party system, along with limits on campaign funding, might be able to curb their power, although it is not certain they will be able to end it. Therefore, when democracy fails to prevent people like Isam from controlling politics, the only way is to build a popular social and political movement—a long road that is not easy and that will not bring about quick results.
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