Against Jokowi’s Presidential Candidate

THE undoing of Indonesia’s democracy as of late exactly matches Bung Hatta’s 1960 description in Demokrasi Kita (Our Democracy). The law is bent to the interest of those in power, politicians have turned into the President’s yes men, political and economic opportunists run rampant, riding on the backs of political parties and other political movements for personal gain. The democratic crisis began after Sukarno buried the country’s constitutional democracy and replaced it with his ‘guided democracy’ in 1950.

Today, President Joko Widodo may not have issued a decree to perpetuate his power. Once his desire to extend presidential tenure failed following the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle’s (PDI-P) rejection, he has resorted to other means to stay in power, namely, by promoting his son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, as a vice-presidential candidate to run alongside Prabowo Subianto.

First, the law was bent by the Constitutional Court (MK) when it agreed to the revision of a requirement for presidential and vice-presidential candidates under the General Election Law. This revision made it possible for Gibran, who has not hit the cut-off age, to run for vice president. Once this happened, state tools and resources have been mobilized to campaign for him.

The police have pressured village heads against supporting other candidates. Those who refuse have been intimidated by investigating the use of village funds for corruption. Ministries and institutions instruct their employees to vote for Prabowo-Gibran, threatening to transfer them to ‘unappealing’ places.  

The police have also suppressed criticisms from professors and lecturers from various universities who have protested against Jokowi’s partisanship. Mid-ranking officers, such as sectoral police chiefs, have approached university officials, persuading them to create testimonies praising Jokowi’s administration.

Currently in conversation is the distribution of social assistance from the state budget. Jokowi has been shamelessly distributing social aid close to the general election, even on roadsides. He and some ministers are using social aid to coax people into supporting their preferred candidate pair.

Even more embarrassing: Jokowi made the statement that a president is allowed to campaign. While cherry-picking the Election Law, he failed to mention that it only allows an incumbent president running for a second term to campaign. Furthermore, Jokowi is not registered under the campaign team of any candidate—a requirement for a president wishing to campaign. This is why corrections and requests for state apparatuses to remain neutral during the election tend to feel stale and apologetic.

It seems that Jokowi and his crew are making sure that cheating does not always mean directing voters at voting booths. Neither does cheating always mean tampering with votes. Conditioning the general election to be in Prabowo-Gibran’s favor is blatant fraud. The candidate pair who has won a fraudulent election has little legitimacy.

In Demokrasi Kita, Hatta stated the need for an extra-parliamentary movement to rebuild democracy. In the current situation, such a movement can mean the call of universities as well as pro-democracy activists. Dozens of universities have asked Jokowi to stop the regression of democracy and the abuse of state resources to perpetuate power.

The President and certain ministers are rightly criticized for undermining and accusing the protest movement of defending Prabowo’s rivals. Even if the protestors support Anies Baswedan or Ganjar Pranowo—the two other presidential candidates—the essence of these protests should be heard if Jokowi has any desire to safeguard democracy.

Jokowi’s move to ignore critics while calling these criticisms part of democracy is a clear example of his hypocrisy. Jokowi must remember that the 1998 Reformasi began with small protests, which snowballed and grew rampant. Universities proved to be beacons that led us out of the democratic crisis.

What has taken place over the past several months should open our eyes that Jokowi has been at the source of this crisis. His personal ambition to stay in power has damaged democracy and brought the republic to the edge of a cliff. There has to be resistance. Democracy has to be salvaged. At the election day, we should not cast our vote for the candidate pair Jokowi is supporting.