Indonesia’s president, who mingles with people and listens to Metallica, still popular in last term

By NINIEK KARMINI
Associated Press

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Joko Widodo’s phenomenal rise from a riverside slum, where he grew up, to the presidency of Indonesia shows how far the world’s third-largest democracy has veered from a brutal authoritarian era decades ago. With his second and final five-year term ending in October, Widodo — regarded by some as Asia’s Barack Obama _ is leaving a legacy of impressive economic growth and an ambitious array of infrastructure projects. They include a $33 billion plan to relocate Indonesia’s congested capital to the frontier island of Borneo. Widodo is Indonesia’s first president outside the political and military elite. He has been criticized for backing his Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, whose running mate in Widodo’s son, in Wednesday’s presidential race.