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Understanding presidential candidates’ visions for constitutional democracy
The three presidential candidates admit the need for meaningful collaboration between law enforcement actors: the KPK, the Attorney General’s Office and the police.
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Presidential candidates Anies Baswedan (second right), Ganjar Pranowo (left) and Prabowo Subianto (center) along with their respective vice presidential candidates pose for photos after the first presidential election debate at the General Elections Commission (KPU) office in Jakarta on Dec. 12, 2023. (AFP/Yasuyoshi Chiba)
A debate is a crucial moment in the presidential election campaign strategy, especially because the forum serves as a platform for contesting candidates to influence public opinion and voter perceptions through their visions, ideas and programs and to project what each prospective president’s administration would look like.
In the first round of the presidential debate on Dec. 12, 2023, the theme of governance and law was shown as a central idea related to state administration and the implementation of constitutional democracy under the aegis of the 1945 Constitution.
A closer look at each candidate's vision shows that each has a distinct point of view in assessing the implementation of the rule of law.
Candidate No. 1 Anies Baswedan emphasized a rule of law that protects citizens' rights and freedoms from potential abuse of power as stated in the 1945 Constitution. His narrative of constitutional democracy is a response to the strengthening of state power at the expense of the opposition, whose role is needed to ensure checks and balances work.
In Anies and running mate Muhaimin Iskander’s mission statement, titled "Just and Prosperous Indonesia for All", Anies provides two crucial points relevant to the current state of democracy, namely ensuring meaningful public participation and strengthening the role of the press and civil society.
His statement reminds us of the symptoms of autocratic legalism in Indonesia's current constitutional democracy ecosystem. In Kim Lane Schepple's (2018) analysis, autocratic legalism is the action of autocrats who hijack constitutional democracy by exploiting the weaknesses and shallowness of the working democratic and legal system. Through mandates obtained in elections, autocrats launch an illiberal democratic agenda or hide autocratic designs into a democratic legal system, resulting in legitimate legal products, then suppress the opposition or civil society and finally, weaken the accountability and capacity of the institutions involved has the function of balancing executive power.
On the other hand, in presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto's vision of the rule of law, he has placed law enforcement, public services and eradicating corruption as essential keywords. If we observe Prabowo’s mission statement, titled "Together with Advanced Indonesia", legal and bureaucratic reforms, as well corruption eradication, are part of 17 priority programs. However, in the debate, Prabowo did not comprehensively present these crucial keywords. Neither did he elaborate deeply on the legal reforms as his priority program. Legal reforms are badly needed when law enforcement weakens.
