A book written by one of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s closest aides tries to explain the rise of conservative right-wing narratives among opposition groups in the current political landscape.

The book called Konservatisme Politik Anti Jokowi (Anti Jokowi’s Political Conservatism) is written by Eko Sulistyo, a member of the President’s campaign team during the 2014 presidential election, who is currently in charge of political communication at the Executive Office of the President (KSP).

A previous book written by Eko on Jokowi was Jokoway, which highlighted the President’s leadership style. In Konservatisme, Eko tries to explain why Jokowi’s opponents tend to use a conservative narrative in their criticism of the government and its policies.

The book is a collection of writings from various national newspapers, such as Kompas, Media Indonesia, Bisnis Indonesia, Koran Tempo, Suara Pembangunan, Sinar Harapan and Pikiran Rakyat.

Eko divides the book into 10 chapters but the most interesting is the first, which illustrates the political conservatism among Jokowi’s opposition.

In this most interesting chapter, Eko explains the background and history that triggered the rise of conservatism in the Indonesian political landscape. According to Eko, it is part of a global-driven trend.

In 2017, The Economist Intelligence Unit (TEIU) issued a report titled Democracy Index 2017: Free speech under attack. Quoting democracy expert Larry Diamond, TEIU stated that 2017 was a “democratic recession”.

The rise of global political conservatism has been taking place everywhere. Right-wing populist politics have become the trend in America, Europe and Asia and this has led to the so-called global democratic recession.

A similar conclusion was also reported in 2018 by Freedom House, which state that “democracy is being attacked and experiencing setbacks throughout the world, this crisis is getting worse along with American standards of rapidly degrading democracy”.

The rise of political conservatism itself is a byproduct of the 2008 global economic crisis, which accelerated into a global phenomenon after the victory of Donald Trump as president of the United States in 2016.

The epidemic of political conservatism that was followed by the politics of fear and hatred also arrived in Indonesia.

Initially, political conservatism was considered by many to be only a splinter movement that grew outside the formal political system but this is not the case, according to Eko in Konservatisme.

Eko emphasizes that religion-based issues along with racist and anti-left remarks have become increasingly more brutal and open since the 2014 presidential election, most of it being aimed toward Jokowi, whose leadership and political origins were nothing like those of presidents before him. He was, therefore, seen as a “progressive” figure during his first presidential campaign.

According to Politicaware, a site that captures conversations on social media, the 2014 presidential election candidate pair of Jokowi and Jusuf Kalla were subject to 94.9 percent of the black campaigning.

During the 2014 presidential election, efforts to alienate Jokowi from Muslim voters were also rampant. This issue originated from the libel that Jokowi was a Christian and was supported by Christians to carry out Christianization.

Even the debate over the idea of Jokowi’s “Mental Revolution”, which originated from his article in a national newspaper was not opposed in terms of a counter concept or conceptual criticism, but was included in the black propaganda that he was a “communist” due to his use of the word “revolution”, a term commonly found in Marxist literature.

Other than black campaigning against Jokowi, identity politics that attempted to divide the Indonesian people into basically two camps — pro-Jokowi and pro-Prabowo — also appeared.

Francis Fukuyama in his latest book, Identify: Comtemporary Identity Politics and the Struggle for Recognition, explains the phenomenon of the decline of global democracy with the strengthening of identity politics and narrow nationalism in modern liberal democracies. This phenomenon is evident, according to Fukuyama, in the Brexit referendum and the presidential election of the US.

Indonesia is also experiencing the ongoing phenomenon of the global democratic recession. Therefore, identity politics that express the politics of hatred and politics of fear must be dealt with according to the law in accordance with international norms.

The challenges ahead for Jokowi, who most likely will become President again for the 2019-2024 term, is to ensure his administration is able to contain conservative fear-mongering and hate-inducing identity politics and narratives in line with democratic values and the supremacy of the law.

To reduce hate speech, for example, Indonesia already has the legal basis, namely the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP), and the 2008 Information and Electronic Transactions Law, the 2008 Elimination of Race and Ethnic Discrimination Law and Law No 7/2012 on social conflict. (hdt)

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Konservatisme Politik Anti Jokowi

By Eko Sulistyo
Published by Moka Media, Jakarta
449 pages

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