Just counting the days, Indonesia will hold general elections for the next 5 years. The elections which will take place on February 14, 2024 determine who is going to be the president and vice president also the Legislative members. Specifically for president election, one and other oddities are slowly seeing blatantly. The dynamics of the current President, Joko Widodo (Jokowi) is take a place in the peak power but seems arbitrarily. Until the efforts to maintain the breed of power are demonstrated through family involvement.
It started on September 22, 2023 when Jokowi's second son, Kaesang Pangarep, was appointed as general chairman of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) meanwhile he just joined the party for 2 days. Less than 2 weeks later, the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Anwar Usman, who is Jokowi's brother-in-law, authorized the withdrawal of the petition regarding the minimum age limit for presidential and vice presidential candidates which stated before, at least 40 years old. In this way, Jokowi's first child, Gibran Rakabuming Raka (36 yo), can safely nominate himself as vice presidential candidate. And at the end of the month, on October 22, president candidate, Prabowo Subianto officially chosen Gibran as his deputy. Meanwhile, his younger brother, who becomes the general chairman of PSI, belongs to one of the parties which supporting his brother.
Previously, at the beginning of 2023, there was a lot of noise about Jokowi's 3rd period. The extension of the presidential term of office suddenly became a topic of conversation among Indonesian. In the provisions of article 7 of the law, it is expressly stated that "the president and vice president hold office for five years and thereafter can be re-elected in the same position, for only one term of office". It means that the maximum period of the president and vice president is only allowed to be two terms.
So, is Gibran's candidacy as vice president belongs to the manifestation of Jokowi's 3 term scenario? It could be. Through the campaign on social media, we can see the various of Jokowi's pioneering programs will be continued by his son. And of course, they have to secure various ongoing projects. Considering this, it does not mean that it is unlawful for other candidates to continue the previous program. If the program brings a lot of great impacts to the wider community, it is indeed worth continuing. But if it only benefits the projects of entrepreneurs under the guise of the government, of course it must be destroyed.
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Another oddity is Jokowi's involvement in openly supporting candidate number 2 where his son belongs to. With full confidence, he stated that he has a right to take sides as the president. In fact, beforehand he stated in various media that government officials and civil servants must act neutrally. These contradictory statements can clearly be traced on various media platforms anyway. He is the one who makes the rules, but he breaks them. Ministers who supported his son's and Prabowo also joined in the campaign. Likewise, his son-in-law who is the mayor of Medan, Bobby Nasution. The jargon of mental revolution that was uttered at the start of his career when he was campaigning as a presidential candidate in 2014 was clearly just a slogan.
Now, residents' anger is increasingly being expressed through numerous protests. Jokowi responded with his normative statement, "we return it all to the citizens". Gibran also followed a similar response when he was questioned regarding the answer also ethics in debating. Like father, like son, he says the same thing "just return it to the residents". This innocent answer indeed becomes the template which is not give any sense. However, if residents protested about this irrationality, people around Jokowi claimed that it was the work of the buzzer.
Now, the wave of protests against Jokowi's political maneuvers is getting higher. Starting from civil society, political figures to the academic community. It was recorded that more than 20 universities officially announced their stance and protested against indications of election fraud. Not only university lecturers and professors, students from various universities in the region also demanded that Jokowi should be neutral ahead of the election. The peak was on February 7 2024, hundreds of university students held a demonstration at the State Palace, demanding the impeachment of President Joko Widodo.
This incident should be a truly reminder for Jokowi. So, he could wake up from the intoxication of power. As a father, Jokowi should be able to resist his desire by controlling the involvement of his family in politics which indeed inappropriately and looks greedy. Widely as a president, Jokowi is supposed to be the role model and not violate the law by cutting it in order to expand the branches of his power and recreating the dark story of the New Order.
