Presidential hopeful Anies Baswedan eyed the Jakarta governor's seat as a stepping stone to the palace, but he will likely be politically "neutralized" before the next presidential election.
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What’s driving the decline of civil liberties trend in Indonesia and what does this say about Jokowi as he embarks on his second term?
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This is a special live event edition of Indonesia In-depth. Indonesia began its transition to democracy in 1998 amid a simultaneous political, social and economic crisis. While the country has made tremendous progress with important economic and political reforms, Indonesia continues to remain in that democratic transition today. At this Indonesinist event held by the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs October 14-16, 2019, (Ret.) Army Lt. Gen. Agus Widjojo, Dr. Michael Vatikiotis, Dr. Siswo Pramono and Shawn Corrigan discuss Indonesia’s path to democracy and the challenges that remain.
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Juggling multiple political interests looks much like a zero-sum game for President Widodo as he considers backtracking on a controversial law that he supported which weakened the country's anti-graft agency.
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The 2019 election has ended but the discourse of “election fraud” in Indonesia remains foggy and tends to shun away from the statistical elements that makes up the election itself. The Constitutional Court rejected Prabowo’s challenge to the 2019 presidential election results when he complained of “structural, systematic and massive electoral fraud”, but what does that standard even mean? Why does It matter in a large-scale election like Indonesia’s? How do you actually manipulate the voter list? Ultimately, we ask: what does one need to do in order to rig an election? In this episode, we dive deep into this issue with Seth Sorderborg, an expert on Indonesian elections and a Ph.D candidate in political science at Harvard University.
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Presidential contender, Prabowo Subianto and his political coalition, rejected the official presidential election results announced by the General Election Commission (KPU) and filed a lawsuit in the Constitutional Court citing that “structural, systematic and massive electoral fraud” occurred. His challenge received quite a bit of attention in both the local/international media and by political observers who believed that such a move could escalate political tensions and could divide the country. Despite the hype, media attention and fears of polarization, Prabowo’s decision to appeal the presidential election results in the Court is actually the norm not the exception. Shawn and Tanita shed light on how many of the same political players in power today made the same claims in past elections when outcomes were less than favorable.
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Despite its importance, not a lot has been discussed about the upcoming legislative election that will take place at the same day with the presidential election. The legislative election this year is going to be tougher as changes in various regulations influence how political parties behave. What’s the relationship between the presidential candidates and their coalition parties? Will political parties benefit from a “coattail effect”? Will we see the end of some old and popular parties this year? Stay tune in this space as we pick on Djayadi Hanan’s insights again on this issue.
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In recent episodes, we have covered the run up to the 2019 presidential campaign and the political negotiations that have been involved, particularly the coalition building between political parties. We also discussed how parties are scrambling to form coalitions to meet presidential thresholds. But why do they even need coalitions and what’s all the fuss about?
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Despite what the news headlines state, Widodo has yet to decide who will be his next VP candidate. It’s becoming more and more likely that President Widodo’s next vice presidential candidate will not come from a political party but rather be an outsider. We cover Widodo's expectations and negotiations with his coalition partners and Vice President Kalla's efforts to run for a third term as VP.
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The lack of clarity of who will be Widodo’s next vice presidential candidate has caused internal friction inside the Golkar party. This situation has left several senior party members questioning Widodo’s loyalty to his closest ally. Widodo’s key coalition member has become divided on whether to fully back the president for a second term as the president eyes other candidates besides Golkar chairman, Airlangga Hartarto.
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This episode is your new manual for Indonesian politics! We lay out all the pieces of the Indonesian political Rubik’s cube and put them all together with Dr. Djayadi Hanan. We cover all the important elements of the 2018 regional elections, the political party dynamics, the political battle for House seats in 2019, which parties are set to become extinct as well as the Widodo - Prabowo contest for the presidency. It’s a full episode and the go to guide for understanding Indonesian politics.
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LEXICO Indonesia’s politcal risk expert, Arief Budiman, explains the internal dynamics in the Golkar Party as well as the new relationship between the party Chairman Airlangga Hartarto and President Widodo.
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