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Indonesia’s democracy, not broken, just bent
In spite of the declining quality of our elections, there are positive signs that tell us that, by and large, the majority of the people in this country still have faith in democracy as the best mechanism in electing our national leaders.
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Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Suhartoyo (fourth left) presides over the first hearing of the petition by presidential election challenger Anies Baswedan over the February 2024 election, which was decisively won by Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto amid allegations of irregularities and fraud at the Constitutional Court in Jakarta on March 27, 2024. (AFP/Yasuyoshi Chiba)
When it comes to integrity, the February general election is billed as the worst Indonesia has held in the 25 years since the nation launched the Reform era to put us on the road to democracy. The path has not always been smooth, but what happened this year reinforces the notion that democracy is backsliding.
This is no reason to give up on democracy, however. In spite of the declining quality of our elections, we still see some positive signs that tell us that, by and large, the majority of the people in this country still have faith in democracy as the best mechanism to elect our national leaders. This faith is what keeps us going and ensures that we can still reverse the trend.
To borrow a phrase from Lady Gaga’s song, our democracy is “not broken, just bent.” The task at hand then, is how do we unbend this?
Put aside for now the results of the presidential and legislative elections as announced by the General Elections Commission (KPU) last week, and the final results in the coming two weeks by the Constitutional Court, which is still going through the appeals filed by aggrieved candidates and parties.
Going by history, we don’t think the court will alter the results very much. Other than in the unlikely event of the court calling for a re-vote, we can conclude that Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto has won the presidential race with 58 percent of the total vote. He is almost certain to take over from the incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in October.
This overwhelming victory, however, has come with a big price tag: The election’s integrity.
The General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Constitutional Court, two institutions which should know better, have already been faulted for ethical breaches by their respective ethics councils. They combined to bend the minimum-age requirement for contesting the election, by allowing Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the son of President Jokowi, to run as Prabowo’s vice presidential candidate. At 36, he was four years short of the then-legal age.
