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President Jokowi has the right to campaign, but should he?
Bawaslu must and is expected to act professionally, fairly and firmly, especially when investigating campaign rule violations involving the President or his son.
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President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo (center) and Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto join a ceremony on Jan. 24, 2024 to hand over Hercules military transport aircraft to the Indonesia Air Force. (The Jakarta Post/Antara)
In front of reporters on Jan. 24, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo stated that as Indonesian President he was entitled to campaign and was free to choose a side as long as he did not use state facilities.
The statement has sparked controversy. Opponents argue that as the President, Jokowi should be a neutral party safeguarding the interest of all parties involved in the upcoming election. Proponents, however, contend that he simply quoted what the law says. There is nothing wrong with it.
So, what do we do about this?
We must first admit that the Election Law provides the President with the right to campaign. But the President is subject to restrictions.
We believe that the law, being the result of the deliberation between the President and the House of Representatives in 2017, has attempted to settle into a middle ground where Jokowi, as head of state and head of government, is also a private citizen who has political rights in the sphere of democracy. Therefore, as a private citizen, the President is still entitled to elect somebody to office or to be (re)elected notwithstanding his/her status as the president.
There are certain restrictions applicable to the president, in this case Jokowi, whenever he or she wishes to carry out their political rights as a private citizen. These restrictions are used as a tool to strip the president of their privileges each time they are campaigning. The president must take leave and must not use the state facilities.
Furthermore, every time the president is back from their campaign and becomes the president of all people, they are prohibited from making decisions and/or taking actions that benefit or harm certain election participants during the campaign period. The president must also refrain from holding activities that lead to bias toward the election participants before, during, and after the campaign period.
