They are lucky the nation no longer has the 1963 Subversion Law, which carried the death penalty. This is one of the first pieces of legislation that we repealed in 1998 as soon as we got rid of president Soeharto, who, like his predecessor Sukarno, had misused it to muzzle critics, for them to stay in power for long years.

Even if the campaign to delay the 2024 election falters, as surveys show there is little public support, the fact that we are having this conversation at all shows dangerous subversive minds at work among some of the nation’s top political leaders.

More specifically, the chairs of three political parties – Muhaimin Iskandar of the Nation Awakening Party (PKB), Zulkiflie Hasan of the National Mandate Party (PAN) and Airlangga Hartarto of Golkar – have openly supported and are campaigning to have the current terms of the executive and legislative branches of the government, both at the national and local levels, extended for three more years.

Unless President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo categorically denounces the plan, he could be perceived by the public to be encouraging it. It is not enough for the President to say, as he did on Friday, that he would abide by the constitution and the national political consensus.

Political leaders can easily engineer political consensus to stay in power without openly defying the constitution. This is how Soeharto kept getting re-elected in one election after another to rule the country for over three decades.

Jokowi should come out much stronger to be convincing, instead of saying that the discussion on delaying the election is part of a political free speech guaranteed in a democracy, especially since the three political parties campaigning it are members of his coalition government.

Popular

Mixed-marriage families seek priority in dual citizenship plan

Firefighter dies battling blaze at illegal Jakarta dumpsite

Prabowo draws flak over Iran nuclear remarks, North Korea mediation claim