TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - We should ignore any complaints from presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto following the ruling by athe Constitutional Court. Now is the time to think about other, more useful things. Anybody of sound mind could begin by trying to reconcile the two opposing sides in order to reduce the political temperature.
This does not mean that the right of Prabowo and his supporters to continue searching for 'justice' should be obstructed. In this state based on the rule of law, everyone is free to follow their own path as long as it is the right one. But what would be the point in, for example, continuing the 'struggle' by challenging the General Elections Commission's (KPU) decision at the State Administrative Court, as that court-according to law-has no authority to examine electoral disputes at the center or in the regions?
Apart from the legal challenge at the Constitutional Court, no other measure would have any significant effect. After the constitutional judge pounded his gavel, it was game over. There are no legal routes at the same level or higher that can be followed. For Prabowo, his only choice is to admit defeat and stop all this absurdity that has even caused some of his own supporters to lose sympathy for him, according to a poll carried out by the Indonesian Survey Circle.
This inappropriate behavior seems to be systematic. Since the KPU announced the results of the presidential election on July 22, actions, speeches and statements have come thick and fast. Initially some people ignored them, but later many began to worry. If this 'contest' continued, all this effort and thought would be for nothing. Would it not be more beneficial to ask the people to address the far more urgent problems this nation is facing?
When Prabowo announced he was "withdrawing from the process underway" as the vote counting was continuing, perhaps he saw this as his right. People also viewed Prabowo's subsequent actions as 'entertainment', which is why the social media was full of derisive comments about the 'would-be presidents' like Prabowo and his supporters. But what happened later defied logic, including the legal challenge at the Constitutional Court.
During the open process at the Court, the public began to see the ramshackle nature of Prabowo's lawsuit. It comprised nothing more than careless copies from other lawsuits. At the same time, in debates in various media, Prabowo's legal team always seems confused about how to back up their arguments, despite their strident stubbornness.
Everything came to a peak with the inadequate acting from the witnesses produced at the hearing. Their appearances merely served to underline one thing: that all the accusations of structural, systematic and massive fraud were utterly baseless.
The hearing clearly showed that the evidence was not as significant or as convincing as had been loudly proclaimed. This evidence failed to support the points at the center of the dispute. Among the charges rejected by the Court was that voters had been mobilized to support a particular candidate, especially in regions where there had been a large increase in the number of special voters. Not only was there no evidence, but it turned out that in areas with large numbers of special voters, such as West Java and West Sumatra, Prabowo actually won.
At a press conference after the Court's last session, Prabowo's people said they accepted the judges' final ruling. But behind this stance there were still signs of objection and a desire to continue the case. They said they would still try other legal avenues, and political measures-a desire that sounded like a threat, and that could be very counterproductive to the nation in the future.
This statement reminded us of the determination expressed by Prabowo from the outset in an interview with a foreign media: defeat is not an option. But because his defeat has now been confirmed constitutionally, his reluctance to concede that his opponent has won is looking more and more like a way of satisfying his own ego.
Prabowo does have a better option: stop all these actions and monitor the performance of the new government from the legislature. If he does anything outside this, let him and his followers bear the consequences. This presidential election should have given the people a lesson in the practice of statesmanship and dignity. He missed that opportunity, Perhaps the people will soon decide to forget him. (*)
Read the full story in this week's edition of Tempo English Magazine
