Indonesia Needs a Reboot

A little over a year ago, Joko Widodo swept to power in Indonesia promising bold change and higher living stands. Voters enthusiastically bought into his everyman image: He's Indonesia's first president with no ties to the military, the country's dynastic families or its sprawling party machinery.

These days, a more common sentiment in Southeast Asia's biggest economy is buyer's remorse. The hands-on, get-things-done reputation that Widodo, commonly known as Jokowi, carried into office has frayed. Desperate to reverse the slide, he's trying to revitalize his team and his agenda. Last month, he named former central banker Darmin Nasution as his new economy minister and brought former finance czar Rizal Ramli into the cabinet. They've wasted no time in promising big stimulus and structural reforms.