Jokowi's Populism, Wealth and Local Democracy in Solo City

The making of populism in Surakarta city had almost been a tale. Mayor Jokowi was supposedly a humble, confident and broadened minded leader. Humble, that he was a person who had the willingness to listen to inputs from citizen. Confident, in a sense that he had necessary capacities to decide policies contrasting to others who often trapped in hesitance causing good policies hooked in their drawers. And broadened minded that he was open to new ideas. He was in his time people believed a potential transformative leader in Solo. This paper answers a question Why and how populism in Solo did contribute to some extent to democratic transformation, and what are challenges? It is not prepared to repeat the tale, rather written to provide a critical interpretation that populism is not shaped original from the populist's kitchen, but from power relation dynamics with democracy actors. An interpretative analysis finds that vital part of Mayor Jokowi's programmatic politics resulted from negotiation with CSOs and local fora. Despite CSO's influence, there were two challenges left. They are populism that had gained its champion and some ironies so-called discrepancy and poverty. Connecting the two, this paper argues that alternative actor presence had been influential in democratic space but not strong enough that it could spur to linking populist programmatic politics to a better life for the poor. A space to facilitate democratic actors work together again is about an imperative to make democracy again on the march at Solo city.