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Indonesian President Joko Widodo ends his decade-long stay in power this year with much of the popularity that catapulted him into the country’s highest office still intact. But observers and rights advocates alike say that he is leaving behind a legacy tainted by democratic backsliding and, most recently, political favoritism.
This Valentine’s Day, millions of votes will shape Indonesia’s democratic future in the world’s largest single-day election in 2024. Increasingly apparent among observers and civil society, however, are the multiple maneuvers by the outgoing president to secure his eldest son’s win in the vice presidency, marking a departure from the anti-dynasty sentiment that had first swept him to power.
To many, the term-limited Widodo has gone from being a man of the common people to the country’s main kingmaker who they say has no qualms in using his office to ensure that his chosen candidates – and especially his eldest son – win.
Democracy lovers and academics have flagged Widodo’s apparent lack of impartiality and misuse of power and public funds to back his favored candidates, which includes his son’s presidential running mate and his former rival, Prabowo Subianto.
But critics have been particularly troubled by the bid of his son Gibran Rakabuming Raka for the country’s second highest seat.
Even as presidential or vice presidential candidates must be at least 40 years old, the Constitutional Court, whose chief judge is married to Widodo’s sister, last October ruled in favor of an amendment that lowered the age requirement for those who have been publicly elected to office – thereby clearing the way for 36-year-old Gibran, the incumbent mayor of Solo, a city some 464 kms east of Jakarta.
This was widely seen as among the many moves orchestrated by Widodo to lay the foundations of a succession plan that would, essentially, extend his political influence after serving two five-year terms.
Critics say as well that Gibran, a former entrepreneur, is still very much a political greenhorn. While he followed in his father’s footsteps in serving as Solo mayor, Gibran has been in office for only two years – much shorter than his father’s seven-year tenure as mayor from 2005 to 2012 before becoming Jakarta governor, and later in 2014, president.
Political ‘roadshows’
Yet Widodo even crossed party lines to support Gibran and Prabowo in what observers believe boils down to his way of consolidating power outside the confines of his party and main election vehicle in the past polls, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
PDI-P fielded its own presidential and vice presidential candidates this year and has largely distanced itself from Widodo. In November 2023, the party expelled Widodo’s son-in-law for supporting the Prabowo-Gibran tandem.
An unperturbed Widodo had even pushed for a controversial increase in the social assistance budget this year, and has since been personally going around the country in what his office describes as “work trips.”
In these political roadshows, Widodo posed for photos with frontrunner Prabowo in what analysts believe is his “open campaigning” for the Prabowo-Gibran duo.
The president and his ministers would also allegedly dangle government assistance in exchange for votes by repeatedly emphasizing Gibran’s electoral bid for the vice presidency, said Bivitri Susanti, deputy chairperson of the Indonesia Jentera School of Law, during a recent closed-door webinar on concerns about the integrity of the upcoming polls.
The forum held last Feb. 7 was jointly organized by the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), the Asia Democracy Network, and the Asian Network for Free Elections.
“Some of the ministers would actually say, ‘Look, this is from your president. So you know how, whom to vote, right?’ … And then, (when) the people answered: ‘Now you know who to vote,’” Susanti said, adding that video evidence of this exchange has gone viral among Indonesians.
Discarding all semblance of neutrality, the Indonesian leader said in January that a sitting president had the right to “take sides” and openly favor a candidate as long as there were no state facilities used in the process.
During an election rally, Prabowo himself said Widodo was “clearly one” of the people supporting his presidential bid, according to a report by CNN Indonesia.
But Susanti pointed out that Widodo’s actions violated Indonesia’s campaign laws, specifically the 2017 General Elections Law, which required incumbent officials to take an unpaid leave before they could campaign for a candidate.
“Everything is in the murky area,” Susanti said. “They always say that they have the right to promote whomever they want. But our election law says that (if) you support a candidate, you first have to be on leave and not use state facilities.”
In the same webinar, constitutional law expert and lawyer Feri Amsari also flagged Widodo’s “multiple” attempts to use his influence and position to secure the victory of his preferred candidates.
Amsari said that the president is specifically aiming to clinch enough votes to get his son past the first round, which requires Gibran to get at least a 50-percent win in at least 20 provinces in the country. “In achieving this, the president has placed people in the regional police, and there are rumors that there will be interventions by these police to guarantee the election for a certain candidate on election day,” Amsari added.
Academics have been leading the public outcry over Widodo’s perceived meddling. A week before the polls, hundreds of students held a mass demonstration in Jakarta to denounce Widodo, specifically his endorsement of Prabowo, who faces accusations of human rights violations and whom Widodo appointed as defense minister during his second term in office.
The public response, such as from academe, was swift. Following orders from the chief of police, several university rectors released similar video statements expressing gratitude to Widodo while calling for “peaceful” elections. Other university leaders refused to comply, citing a commitment to the truth.
Susanti said that while there have been “systematic and structured” violations of the country’s election law and the principles of electoral justice, checks and balances remain out of reach due to Widodo’s tightly controlled bureaucracy.
“The supervisory commission, general election commission, the police force, the armed forces and all the bureaucracy are under the president and have been politicized quite strongly,” Susanti said.
Democracy derailed?
Indonesia’s democracy is young and, as the BBC put it recently, hard-won. It has been just about 25 years or so after the fall of dictator Suharto – who was pushed out by an angry mass fed up with his oppressive rule – and Widodo is one of just two presidents since then who gained the office through national elections.
Widodo is also Indonesia’s first national leader with a non-elite background – a furniture maker who captured the masses’ imagination with promises of reform. At one point, Widodo, popularly known as “Jokowi,” had praised his children, including Gibran, for setting up their own businesses.
According to a 2020 column by Ben Bland, then the Southeast Asia program director of the Lowy Institute, Widodo said that he did not believe in “channeling power” to his children. That no longer seems to be the case.
Yet even in the last months of Widodo’s rule, his satisfaction ratings continued to be exceptionally high at 78 percent, according to a national survey. To University of Indonesia election law lecturer Titi Anggraini, the sheer number of competing candidates has benefited Widodo since this has made it difficult for voters to focus on a single issue.
She pointed out that Indonesia’s upcoming presidential and legislative elections are among the most technically complex and massive in the world, with more than 210,000 candidates battling for various positions, Titi said that this was a “colossal agenda” and the reason why voters were struggling to be “rational.”
Three presidential and vice-presidential tandems, including Prabowo and Gibran, will be competing for the top two elective posts. But besides electing their next president and vice president, Indonesians will also be voting for members of parliament at the national, provincial, and city/regency level. In total, 575 parliamentary seats are up for grabs among 18 national political parties across the country.
“Election organizers are very busy with election technicalities, and there are too many issues,” Titi said. “When we want to focus on one issue, we must face another issue. It’s like a cycle.” Voters get distracted and, in turn, are less than likely to focus on political issues, she explained.
Citing the use of government assistance to clinch voters, Titi said that the political elite resorts to “pork-barrel politics” because it is effective at swaying the public, who “tend to be emotional and want things to be simple.”
“That’s (also) why sensational information is easier to accept by the voters,” she said. “Vote-buying is used as a shortcut to winning the election.”
Widodo’s continued popularity even after he has shed his man-of-the-people image and openly crossed lines to endorse his son speaks to how common family dynasties have become in Indonesia, she lamented.
Taking such dynasties as matters of fact has made it easier for many Indonesian people to accept arguments or claims by the political elite, such as those by the president, who even uploaded a YouTube video citing specific provisions in the 2017 General Elections Law that allow incumbent officials to campaign for candidates – skipping mention of the provisions that require them to be on leave to do so.
Said Titi: “So when people see that Jokowi is putting his son as his successor, there’s a political narrative by the elites that it’s common as long as you follow the rules.”
Widodo has, indeed, largely abided by election rules – rules he has bent in his and his son’s favor. ◉