People holds posters during a protest against a move to overturn a Constitutional Court ruling that changed eligibility rules for candidates in the general election later this year, in front of the East Java Provincial Parliament in Surabaya on August 23, 2024. Indonesian lawmakers scrapped a controversial plan to change election rules, a parliament official announced on August 22, after thousands rallied in the capital over a move seen to help the outgoing president build a political dynasty. - AFP
JAKARTA (Bloomberg): It took little more than 24 hours for Indonesian protesters to end a power grab by the nation’s elite, showing the depth of anger at dynastic politics and democratic backsliding in South-East Asia’s biggest economy.
On Wednesday evening, after lawmakers aligned with President Joko Widodo and President-elect Prabowo Subianto tried to undercut a day-old Constitutional Court ruling on the upcoming regional elections, students, unions and opposition parties acted fast.
Tens of thousands of protesters quickly took to the streets in Jakarta and other major cities on Thursday morning, surrounding parliament, clashing with police and hurling abuse at politicians. Millions took to social media calling for a defense of democracy. Stocks and the rupiah fell.
By a little after 5 p.m. in Jakarta, lawmakers scrapped the proposed changes - for now. The protesters have shown that even the popular Jokowi faces constraints in his bid to maintain political influence, and sends a message to incoming leader Prabowo, a former general, that Indonesians want to keep their relatively fair and free-wheeling democracy.
"This was a victory for democracy,” said Bivitri Susanti, a legal expert and political observer from the Indonesia Jentera School of Law, adding that it may be short-lived if political elites try to undercut other legal rulings. "This sets an important precedent, and we must guard it until the end.”
The protesters’ cause may have been aided by the reaction in the markets, where stocks tumbled and the rupiah was Asia’s worst-performer. Both have rebounded since the ruling elite’s retreat, and there’s relief that even worse violence was avoided amid criticism of how police handled the protests.
"The demonstration was dispersed using tear gas, beatings, the involvement of the army, which indicated the use of excessive force,” said rights watchdog Komnas HAM. Amnesty International Indonesia’s Usman Hamid called for the government to "abandon unnecessary violent behavior” and prosecute security forces guilty of abuses.
Former Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla earlier this week warned that the government risked unrest mirroring the riots in Bangladesh last month that prompted the prime minister to flee.
Demonstrators shout slogans during a protest against a move to overturn a Constitutional Court ruling that changed eligibility rules for candidates in the general election later this year, in front of the East Java Provincial Parliament in Surabaya on August 23, 2024. Indonesian lawmakers scrapped a controversial plan to change election rules, a parliament official announced on August 22, after thousands rallied in the capital over a move seen to help the outgoing president build a political dynasty. - AFP
‘Hijacking of Democracy’
The proposed legislative changes, pushed through a parliamentary panel on Wednesday ahead of a full legislative vote, would have made it hard for small parties to field candidates in key gubernatorial contests. And Jokowi, whose eldest son is already vice president-elect, would have potentially seen his 29-year-old youngest son skirt age rules and run for office.
"What the parliament did was not just a setback for democracy, it was a hijacking of democracy,” said Said Iqbal, president of the Labor Party, warning of weekend protests if lawmakers or the election commission make a renewed effort to push through the legal changes. "Parliament is a high state institution - if it had passed it yesterday, it would have been an abuse of power, exceeding its authority.”
The presidential office has said it would respect the Constitutional Court ruling if there is no amendment to the election law, and Jokowi said late Wednesday that "we respect the authority and decisions of each state institution.”
Dynastic Politics
The bid to have a second son in power dented the image of Jokowi, a former carpenter who was Indonesia’s first president from outside the military or political elite. The 63-year-old, who will step down in October due to term limits, has won praise for attracting investment, building infrastructure and reducing poverty. But critics say he has weakened democratic institutions in Indonesia, which until 1998 was ruled for decades by the dictator Suharto.
For a start, the Constitutional Court - then overseen by Jokowi’s brother-in-law - made a widely vilified ruling last year that let his eldest son, 36-year-old Gibran Rakabuming Raka, run as Prabowo’s vice presidential pick.
"We let you off when you had your eldest become vice president-elect,” said Vedi Hadiz, professor of Asian Studies and director of the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne. "You’re asking for a lot if you think that we’d be happy with such blatant abuse of power in order to allow your 29-year-old son to also hold a position of power.”
Jokowi also introduced a criminal code that Human Rights Watch said opens the door to "invasions of privacy and selective enforcement” by allowing the police to extort bribes and lawmakers to harass political opponents.
He also placed the corruption watchdog under the office of the president. "Amid democratic backsliding, it remains uncertain whether the severely disempowered anti-corruption agency, the KPK, will be allowed to regain its former mandate any time soon,” according to a January report by Transparency International, which ranks Indonesia 115th on its Corruption Perceptions Index.
An investor-friendly job creation law was also found to be legally flawed by the court, which ordered the government to revise it to ensure public participation in its changes. Instead, Jokowi used an emergency decree to push the changes quickly through parliament, with critics claiming he was bypassing debate.
On Aug. 16, in the final state of the nation and budget speeches before he steps down due to term limits, Jokowi highlighted a decade of roughly 5% annual growth, more than twice that of neighboring Thailand. He’s fostered the onshore processing of raw materials and helped build new airports, ports and railways.
"Ten years is not a long period to solve all problems in our nation,” Jokowi told lawmakers on Aug. 16. "I would like to extend our apology - apology for anyone who feels disappointed, for every hope that has not been materialized, for every dream that has not been realized.”
Work is underway on a new capital city, and companies including Microsoft Corp. are investing in the nation of roughly 280 million people. But the Jokowi-Prabowo alliance’s bid to entrench its power has rattled investors, and there are concerns the two men may fall out once the retired general takes office.
"Come October, it will be in the interest of Prabowo to erode as much as possible the power and influence of Jokowi and his family,” said the University of Melbourne’s Hadiz. "This is why Jokowi has been desperately scrambling to ensure that his people, his loyalists, have key positions in the government and in the military.”
- Report by Chandra Asmara, Soraya Permatasari and Adrian Kennedy -- ©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
