JAKARTA -- On the morning of Jan. 21, a bright-red excavator dug its claws into a patch of earth in the western outskirts of Bandung as Indonesia's president, Joko Widodo, looked on with a smile. He was witnessing the launch of the country's first high-speed railway, which will connect Jakarta to the mountainous city.
Another president -- albeit of a company not a country -- was also in attendance. But Bintang Perbowo, head of state-owned contractor Wijaya Karya, or Wika, may have been watching things unfold with a little more anxiety than the politician. After all, his career may be riding on the project.