TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsAnalysis: Prabowo’s pardons: The start of Jokowi’s fall from grace
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Sukarnoputri (center) talks with President Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo (left) as Ganjar Pranowo, the party’s presidential candidate for the 2024 election, stands next to them during the party's national meeting in Jakarta on Sept. 29, 2023. (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
I
n a shocking twist to end the month, President Prabowo Subianto has decided to give legal clemency to both the secretary-general of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Hasto Kristiyanto, and former trade minister Thomas ‘Tom’ Trikasih Lembong for their respective graft convictions.
Hasto, who was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on July 25 following a lengthy legal process that began in December 2024, was originally found guilty of aiding fellow PDI-P politician Harun Masiku in bribing a General Elections Commission (KPU) official in 2019 to secure a vacancy at the House of Representatives (DPR).
He will have his conviction wiped clean through a political amnesty directive made by President Prabowo. Law Minister Supratman Andi Atgas stated that the order would not only absolve Hasto but also 1,116 other prisoners of their crimes, including unarmed treason convicts in Papua, the elderly, and the mentally ill.
Meanwhile Tom, who was given a four and a half year prison sentence for orchestrating a corrupt sugar import scheme a decade ago, will have his legal conviction ‘abolished’. This decision will essentially erase Tom’s legal process altogether. He is not just forgiven for his crime, abolition means the crime will be wiped away as if it never existed in the first place.
The semantic difference between amnesty and abolition might seem futile, but the political implications of the President’s pardons are certainly noteworthy.
Both decisions come at a time of heightened political tension regarding former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s enduring influence in Prabowo’s administration. One striking similarity between Hasto and Tom is their shared history as critics of the ex-president.
Tom stood behind Anies Baswedan, another Jokowi critic, as the former Jakarta governor’s campaign manager in the 2024 presidential election. Meanwhile, Hasto, as the PDI-P's second-in-command, famously expelled Jokowi from the party after his rumored behind-the-scenes maneuvering that enabled his son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, to run in last year’s polls as Prabowo’s vice presidential pick.
