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View all search resultsTen years lost in two
Indonesia has sunk to a decade low on the Rule of Law Index—a damning confirmation that from police impunity to ad hoc task forces, the law no longer restrains state power, but serves as its weapon.
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Penalty money: President Prabowo Subianto gestures on April 10 at the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) in Jakarta during a ceremony marking the work of his forestry task force that has led to a crackdown on illegal plantations and mines. Prabowo delivered a speech in front of stacks of banknotes representing fines paid by companies found to have operated illegally in forest areas. (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
T
he World Justice Project published its 2026 Rule of Law Index on Oct. 20, the same day the Prabowo Subianto administration turned two.The timing was not planned, and the result was hardly surprising.
Indonesia scored 0.51 on the index this year, down from 0.52 in 2025 and 0.53 in 2023. The country now ranks 75th among 143 nations, six places lower than last year, trailing Malaysia at 53rd and Singapore at 14th.
More damning still, it is Indonesia's record low in a decade.
Three consecutive years of decline; a trajectory that began under Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and has continued, uncorrected, under Prabowo. That the new administration inherited a deteriorating baseline is true; that it had two years to reverse it but did not is more relevant now.
The index measures eight factors of the rule of law. Indonesia weakened across all of them. Its lowest scores fell in criminal justice (0.37), absence of corruption (0.42) and fundamental rights (0.45).
These measurements are the lived experience of people who encounter courts that move slowly, officials who act with impunity and rights that exist on paper but vanish in practice.
This does not come as a surprise. We have covered what the index now confirms in numbers.
