Anies and Ganjar challenge election result
⚖️ Anies and Ganjar challenge presidential election result
🏘️ Revisions to Village Law pass DPR
🏢 DKI Jakarta becomes DK Jakarta
🚦Human trafficking found in Indonesian universities
🗳️ PSI leans towards Kaesang for Jakarta governor
⚖️ Anies and Ganjar challenge presidential election result
Unsuccessful presidential candidates Ganjar Pranowo and Anies Baswedan initiated separate legal proceedings on Wednesday, contesting the result of the 2024 Presidential Election. The Constitutional Court has a maximum of 14 days to reach its decision, meaning that this whole thing should be wrapped up relatively soon.
Who’s accusing who of what?
Rather than challenging the official result, Anies’ camp has called for a revote and the disqualification of Prabowo Subianto. His legal team accused Jokowi of using his presidential powers to extend his political influence beyond the term of his presidency. The convey this point, Anies’ team of legal beagles set the scene by reminding the court of the tiga periode messaging that emerged in March 2021. This messaging proposed extending the presidential term limit from two to three terms, which they argued was instigated by Jokowi. Anies’ camp claimed that after the messaging faced strong disapproval from the majority of political parties, Jokowi changed tack and focussed on appointing a successor.
As we now know, this successor was Prabowo Subianto while Gibran Rakabuming, Jokowi’s eldest son, was chosen as his running mate. After anointing Prabowo as his successor (in all but words), the Anies camp argued that Jokowi used the levers of the state to benefit Prabowo’s campaign. They alleged that Jokowi had intentionally visited regions where Prabowo had lost in 2014 and 2019 distributed state-funded aid to voters, and collaborated with local officials to ensure that Prabowo would be elected.
The Ganjar camp made similar arguments but focused on allegations of nepotism. Ganjar's legal team zeroed in on Jokowi’s use of the Constitutional Court, which rewrote the rules to allow Gibran to run as a vice-presidential candidate. Special attention was given to the role played Jokowi’s brother-in-law and former Constitutional Court Chief Justice Anwar Usman, who breached the court's ethical code and was subsequently ousted as Chief Justice for his role in the matter. The Ganjar camp also flagged an alleged attempt by Jokowi to delay the 2024 election. Like the Anies camp, the Ganjar legal team claimed that following Jokowi’s failed attempts to prolong his own presidency, he cut a deal with Prabowo to select Gibran as his running mate.
In response to Anies and Ganjar's allegations, Prabowo's camp flat out denied Jokowi's involvement and labelled the allegations as unfounded. As part of this rejection, they claimed that Anies and Ganjar’s argument completely disregarded the role played by the Prabowo's coalition partners, which they argued delivered him an electoral success. While not directly involved the proceedings, the media tried to elicit a response from Jokowi, but he opted not to comment.
Ultimately, this trial is unlikely to alter the election result. Instead, it serves more as a national face-saving exercise for Anies and Ganjar by showing the general public that the odds were against them from the start. Moreover, the trial provides these two former candidates with a national platform to segue into a new political direction whatever form that may take.
🏘️ Revisions to Village Law pass DPR
The DPR, Indonesia’s lower house of parliament, unanimously passed 26 revisions to the 2014 Village Law (Law No 6/2014) this week in a bid to improve village governance and welfare.
The most significant revision extends term lengths for village heads from six to eight years. We also saw changes to the number of terms a village head can serve, which was reduced from three terms to two. In addition to term extensions, village heads will also now receive a one-time retirement allowance at the end of their term, social security, a performance bonus, and allowances for their spouse, and children.
Other notable revisions were made to the Village Consultative Body (“VCB”), with 30% of representatives now required to be women. The term duration and sitting periods for VCB members was also adjusted to align with the new term rules for village heads. Members of the VCB will also receive an allowance funded by the regency or provincial government.
Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian commended the DPR's passing of the legislation, attributing it to the strong alignment between the DPR and the government.
🏢 DKI Jakarta becomes DK Jakarta
The DPR approved the Jakarta Law on Thursday, facilitating Jakarta's transition from a Special Region Capital City (DKI) to Special Region Jakarta. It begins the process of formally moving the capital city status to Nusantara — Indonesia’s new capital city in Kalimantan.
The most significant feature of the law is the continuation of direct elections, ensuring that Jakarta's governor and vice governor are elected by the people rather than the DPR, DPRD, or the president. The legislation was introduced last year alongside a proposal from the DPR to have Jakarta’s governor appointed directly by the Indonesian President. This proposal sparked significant public controversy, prompting Jokowi to intervene by expressing his support for a provincial election. Some analysts viewed this proposal as a strategy by Jokowi to gauge public opinion (remember the whole tiga periode debate?). By eliminating elections, the incumbent president would be able to appoint a loyal figure to the position and simultaneously eliminate a national platform for political opponents in what is widely regarded as a stepping stone to the presidency.
In addition to the provisions for elections, several other key points relating to governance and culture were included. The legislation included regulations to establish 15 special authorities to oversee public infrastructure and to serve the Special Regional Government of Jakarta. The legislation also included provisions for the Betawi people, the indigenous ethnic from the Jakarta region, by providing the community with financial support for Betawi culture.
All parties in DPR except Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (“PKS”) voted to pass the bill. The Islamic party voted against the bill, citing rushed proceedings and the DPR’s rejection of its proposal to designate Jakarta as the country's legislative hub.
🚦Human trafficking through Indonesian universities
41 Indonesian universities could face penalties from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology for their unwitting involvement in human trafficking.
The human trafficking began in late 2023 under the guise of an internship or Ferienjob — the German word for a seasonal job. As many as 1,047 students signed up for the program through their universities under the intention that they would undertake an internship related to their studies in Germany. However, upon arrival in the country, the students were assigned work as manual laborers.
The Indonesian authorities began investigating the program after its Embassy in Berlin reported that four students had sought assistance from the embassy upon discovering that the internship was not what they’d signed up for. Since then, the Indonesian Police have named five suspects, two of whom are in Germany. One of the suspects is a director of the human resources agency that reportedly established cooperation with the implicated universities.
Indonesian civil society groups have urged the government to conduct a thorough investigation into the program and to penalize the universities involved for not properly carrying out their due diligence of the program.
🗳️ PSI leans towards Kaesang for Jakarta governor
While the Jakarta gubernatorial election was only confirmed as going ahead this week, Partai Solidaritas Indonesia — Indonesia’s youth-oriented party and a coalition member of Prabowo Subianto — announced that it would likely nominate its chairperson and Jokowi’s youngest son Kaesang Pangarep as its candidate.
PSI appears to be striving for relevance after failing to meet the 4% threshold for the DPR on the back of the recent legislative election. With its DPR dreams now in the rearview mirror, PSI is now eyeing the Jakarta gubernatorial election, scheduled for November 2024. The party announced plans to nominate Kaesang as its gubernatorial candidiate on the provision that he meets all the necessary administrative requirements.
The party also hinted that its founder, Grace Natalie, could also be nominated by the party, given her strong performance in the recent legislative election. However, realistically speaking, as a double minority (ethnic Chinese and Christian), her electoral chances are low, making Kaesang the more viable option, especially considering he’s also Jokowi’s son.
Before nominating a candidate, PSI would need to overcome several hurdles first, including securing the support from at least 20% of the current Jakarta DPRD. However, with Jokowi still looking large in the background, stitching up a coalition wouldn't be an impossible task.
All opinions are my own.
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