Political outsider, “clean” politician, “Indonesia’s Obama”, “A New Hope” – all of these are referring to Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s seventh president. However, recently President Joko has been accused of limiting human rights, enabling environmental destruction, restricting freedom of speech, and assisting corruption. What could one possibly do to be accused of this?

Source: Time Magazine

In 2014 Jokowi – Mr. Joko’s most popular nickname – ran his first presidential campaign. His populist and non-traditional style attracted a lot of attention amongst the public and, eventually, granted him a victory. Jokowi became Indonesia’s first president without military background and he had no political experience at all. Many experts predicted Jokowi’s election to be a major step in Indonesian democratic politics. It is now his second term and the country is in a rocky position.

How Things Went Downhill

Despite the popular opinion that protests have just begun in Indonesia, they actually go all the way back to 2014 when Jokowi signed a round of capital punishments with questionable evidence. Despite the national and global outrage, all criminals were executed by a firing squad. Jokowi ran his first term under the slogan “Indonesia Maju” (“Indonesia advancing”) and now citizens are asking “Advancing where?” The president did visibly upgrade the country’s infrastructure but did little to nothing to protect the rights of the minorities. From there, things went downhill.

Current Protests

All of the current civil demonstrations were organized by students as a response to the new legislation, initiated by Jokowi. The bill that caused the most outrage promised to limit The Corruption Eradication Committee – one of the only government agencies that still kept checks on Jokowi. President Jokowi didn’t stop there though, he added fuel to the fire of the mass protests by proposing a revision of criminal code, which would outlaw abortions (with few exceptions of rape or incest). Joko also proposed to criminalize sex outside of marriage, which could heavily impact the LGBTQ+ community. On top of all of the anti-democratic measures, President Joko initiated less restrictive environmental regulations for Indonesia’s largest industries.

The situation escalated to a new level when the police fired cannons and tear gas at one of the rallies. At another rally protesting President Joko’s reelection, 200 citizens were injured and six people died.

It is important to emphasize that most of the proposals above, at least for now, are just bills. Protests seemed to influence Jokowi’s plan of actions as he has publically put them on hold. The organizers of demonstrations announced that they will not quit until the bills are officially “revoked”

We couldn’t think of a better person to interview for this article than a representative of Indonesian youth. Meet 21-year old Pradipta Bambang, a student at Akamigas Polytechnic of Energy and Mines and a political enthusiast. In an interview with The New Voice, we asked Pradipta about his opinion on President Joko’s persona, the students protest movement, and how he believes the situation will advance. Here is what he had to say:

“It’s quite complicated, considering Indonesia was divided roughly into two large political groups of major ideologies (Islamism vs. Nationalism). A similar method used by US politicians, which is called “Identity Politics.” I consider myself a non-participant because they have the same radicalized movement in the name of “identity” pride. I think Jokowi betrayed his goal and idealism by trying to merge two parties into one giant oligarchy and political dynasty, back to the “New Order” era (in which free speech, freedom of expression, and everything related got silenced) by proposing a new design of law which was considered nonsensical. The thing which really sparked the outrage was the law in which to reduce the impact of corruption eradication. The House of Representatives was really vocal about Jokowi’s influence, but then both Jokowi and the House tried to propose a new law without the public’s acknowledgment. The protests were triggered because of certain reasons: 1) Provocateurs invading the student protests. 2) Police brutality (water cannon and such). 3) House representatives and the president’s apathy for the student demands at first. 4) An act of “silencing” done by the government to academics. Protests are a good thing for Indonesia, of course. They mean that our democracy is still alive. Will they change? Hmm… not much I think. Mr. Jokowi is a deep thinker and he will stand for what he has taken. Yes, it’s providing a lot of suggestions for government, but for a massive change, I don’t think so.”

Now What?

Indonesia is unique – the protests we are currently seeing aren’t associated with a particular party nor do they have a complex organization. The protests are led by students who know and demand their rights. As Pradipta has mentioned, it is unlikely that Jokowi will “break” and kill his self-initiated bills. As it would make him look weak in the international arena. On the other hand, the protesters made it clear that they will not stop until equal rights are restored. It’s a protest many political scientists aren’t too sure how to predict.

Welcome to our new article series: The Year of Protests! 2019 has been a year filled with street protests from around the world, and no one has been able to figure out why. In this series, New Voice reporters, Juliette Reyes and Polina Protozanova, will analyze and explain these various protests going on in countries from around the world.

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