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IIF 2024 highlights challenges, opportunities for Indonesia’s democracy
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(Courtesy of IIF 2024)
T
ransparency International Indonesia recently held the 2024 Indonesia Integrity Forum (IIF), highlighting challenges to the country’s democracy as well as efforts to protect it.
Held in Jakarta on Oct. 10, the forum was themed “Rebuilding Trust, Restoring Hope” and had more than 150 attendees, including representatives of ministries, state institutions, embassies, international organizations, political parties and civil society organizations, as well as journalists.
The IIF 2024 highlighted this year as an important period for Indonesia’s democracy, marked by leadership transitions at both the national and local levels. At the same time, it pointed out the country’s predicament of being a flawed democracy according to the Democracy Index and ranking 115th out of 180 countries assessed in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI).
In addition, the forum identified four signs indicating the decline of Indonesian democracy over the last five years, including so-called "abusive lawmaking", characterized by a loss of government accountability and minimal space for citizen participation in the decision-making process; damage to democratic institutions caused by democratically elected officials; co-optation of law enforcement; and weak political education for the community.
To better protect Indonesian democracy, speakers at the IIF 2024 opined that the leadership transition this year provided an opportunity to reaffirm Indonesia's hopes and commitment to democracy in the future.
The forum found that four criteria had to be met for this to occur.
First, the "fast-track" legislative process would have to be limited because of its potential to turn into "abusive law making", which contradicted the principles of constitutional democracy and was politically and economically dangerous.
Second, democracy had to become a system of values and ethics, and conflicts of interest had to be recognized as areas of high potential for corruption.
Third, democracy cannot exist without democratic political parties, necessitating political party reform as well as ensuring elections produce a civilized democratic substance instead of a transactional one.
Fourth, citizens had to be better informed about their rights, participating in state processes and safeguarding democracy.
