ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the question of how limited territorial and coercive power and authority, as an actual set of practices, organisational and transactional strategies, has translated into or been used as political capital in the context of multi-party legislative elections, and direct elections for governors and the presidency in Jakarta. It examines the engagement of Forum Betawi Rempug (FBR) in Jakarta's politics, in particular its relationship with city's governors. A type of morality racketeering profited from the presence of 'vice' by claiming to eliminate legal and illicit businesses. The chapter examines the re-emergence of Hercules on the national political stage in the lead-up to the 2014 presidential election, as a key component of the 'counter-insurgency'-type campaigning of his former military backer, New Order strongman and presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto. It examines several different 'engagements' between ormas, violent entrepreneurs and democratic electoral politics.
