In the final months of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s first term in office there have been many baseless, politically motivated accusations leveled at him and his administration by the opposition and their social media allies. 

However, in the run-up to the elections in April, he has made compromising blunders; at best naïve errors in judgment. The most explosive of these have to do with presidential pardons and reductions of sentences related to at least two prominent and brutal cases.

On Jan. 18 the President declared he would pardon or reduce Jamaah Islamiyah leader Abu Bakar Ba’asyir’s sentence to the extent that he would be released very shortly. His legal adviser was former justice minister under then president Megawati Soekarnoputri, Yusril Ihza Mahendra. Yusril, a supporter of the Jakarta Charter, which back ...

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