Democracy Declines after One Year of Jokowi-Ma'ruf Governance: Amnesty

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Executive Director of Amnesty International Indonesia, Usman Hamid, opined that after one year of Joko Widodo or Jokowi-Ma'ruf Amin’s governance, the quality of democracy and human rights in Indonesia tends to decline over the years.

Amnesty predicted that this condition will worsen due to the existence of several contentious laws enacted by the government and the House of Representatives (DPR).

“In the future, we predict that the quality of democracy and human rights will further decline due to the implementation of laws such as the Mining Law and the omnibus law,” Usman told Tempo on Monday night, October 19, 2020.

According to Usman, the drop in the human rights quality was not only about individual freedom, including the freedom of expression, but also the freedom and social justice, such as the rights of indigenous lands and normative rights of workers as well as fishermen and women.

As for the freedom of expression, Usman explained there was a tendency of access restrictions, content intervention through hacking of personal or group accounts, and media sites, up to criminalization.

“[People criticizing the government] are often suspected of being partisan of political parties against Jokowi and are attacked by buzzers. This also reduces the quality of the public space. The public participation is getting too low,” Usman said.

The government of Jokowi-Ma'ruf Amin and the Parliament, Usman went on, neglected the public opinion in making state policies such as the Mining Law and Omnibus Law on Job Creation.

Also Read: Jokowi's First Year in Office; KontraS Highlights Human Rights Violations

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