Civil society has managed to stop it for the time being. But we can only breathe temporarily. The mindset and cancerous political culture have already spread wide and deep, especially within the next generation of young politicians who will one day take over from the current political oligarchs.

The House of Representatives made a blitzkrieg move in a nearly overnight attempt to push through a revision to the Regional Elections Law in their own interpretation as opposed to the recent Constitutional Court ruling. They attempted to subvert the court’s to uphold the minimum age of 30, thus ruling out Kaesang in the regional election, and more importantly to lower the minimum threshold for political parties to nominate their candidate in the election.

Civil society and academics went into an equally lightning-fast response in spreading the word and organized mass resistance, beginning with a viral blue emergency alert post all over social media. The next day students, activists and some influencers went down to the streets to protest the unashamedly nepotistic political move. On social media we saw critical celebrities, political observers and activists showing their support and participation in the protests.

There is an elephant in the room though; glaringly absent are the young politicians who over the past few years have branded themselves vocally as meritocratic, clean and antidynastic politicians.

I am not referring to politicians of a particular party. It is more widespread than this, and there is a particularly frightening trend among the young politicians in their even more barefaced and unashamed politicking ­– even compared with the seasoned grey-haired politicians we have always known.

Take some examples, such as the recent incidents that are outrightly sensitive and gross for the public, like the extension of the presidential term, the weakening of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and, most recently, the Regional Elections Law amendment. Older politicians who are part of the cartel may move behind the scenes but rarely do they passionately give justification in public. It is the younger politicians who are often brazenly the mouthpieces, playing mental acrobatics to justify the political vices as normal and even good.