W

hen Joko “Jokowi” Widodo won the presidential election in 2014, many dubbed his victory as a triumph for democracy.

Portrayed by local and foreign media as the people’s candidate and a political outsider with no links to former president Soeharto’s New Order, many expected that Jokowi would solidify Indonesia’s democratic transition.

But faced by the growing threats of terrorism and radical ideologies that threaten national unity, Jokowi is now seen as moving away from democracy by initiating overreaching legislation.

Two years after his historic election, Jokowi said democracy had “gone too far” and he has recently adopted Soeharto’s infamous political rhetoric, repeatedly saying he will “clobber” those who are against the state ideology of Pancasila and the Constitution.

Senior government officials have said the State Palace is considering issuing a regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) to bypass the lengthy legal process to disband an organization, as stipulated by the 2013 Mass Organization Law.

The first group the government is planning to ban is Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), which campaigns for the creation of a global caliphate.

Moreover, with the country reeling from the latest terrorist bomb attack, Jokowi is now seeking to expand the police’s authority and to bring the Indonesian military (TNI) into the war on terror through the revision of the 2003 Counterterrorism Law.

The government has requested that the police be given the authority to arrest, detain and question suspected terrorists without prior investigation.

It has also proposed that the revision allow the police to place terrorism suspects, defendants and former terrorist convicts along with their families in a rehabilitation center for six months without charge or trial.

Amnesty International Indonesia director Usman Hamid said Jokowi’s controversial decisions were a knee-jerk reaction to the growing sectarianism, radicalism as well as terrorism in the country. He said Jokowi was panicking by seeking to grant more repressive powers to the police and TNI to strengthen security, a policy that would threaten civil liberties.

“Many terror suspects are arrested, killed and tortured without trial and there has so far been no correction of this, and now the government wants to strengthen security measures by empowering the police and TNI in counterterrorism,” the activist said.

Usman said the police were trained to uphold the law while the TNI was not, as the latter was trained to kill in a state of war, so giving the TNI a greater role in counterterrorism would transform the country’s antiterrorist efforts into a war mode.

He said the campaign for a caliphate by the HTI posed no threat and there was no need for the government to disband it.“The government is creating new problems by making such policies or decisions that will certainly harm our democracy and civil liberties.”

Prominent lawyer and human rights campaigner Todung Mulya Lubis said Jokowi felt compelled to propose such regulations as he faced a security-democracy dilemma.

“Terrorism is a global threat not only in Indonesia but in other countries. This is a problematic situation for the President. He has to step up counterterrorism measures, but at the same time he is also confronted by calls to respect the due process of law and human rights,” said Todung.

He said there was no ideal solution to respond to the challenges he faced, but he urged the President to comply with national security and human rights.

Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) researcher Arya Fernandes said Jokowi was aware that his attempts to disband the HTI and expand the TNI’s role would cause controversy, but he was also confident the public stood behind him.

“Of course some people are not happy with his decisions, but we have to also understand that a failure to make such decisions would affect people’s faith in the President because he wants to show that he can provide security and embrace tolerance for people in the country,” Arya said.