Setback in Indonesia's Democracy Accelerated by Pandemic: LPE3S Study

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Institute of Research, Education and Information of Social and Economic Affairs (LP3ES) on Tuesday analyzed a setback looming over Indonesia’s democracy during the coronavirus-stricken 2020. 

LP3ES center for media and democracy director, Wijayanto, said that the institute had predicted the democratic decline at the end of 2019 and claimed the pandemic had accelerated the setback. 

“The outlook predicts the bleak future of Indonesia democracy in 2020, which unfortunately became true, namely because of how the pandemic was mishandled,” said Wijayanto in an online discussion, November 17. 

Last year’s outlook, according to Wijayanto, was based on the passing of the much-debated KPK Law and how the government reacted to the pressure from the public, which reverted to relying on repressiveness upon countering the protests.

There is the use of cyber armies to launch cyber terrors and activist and journalist oppressions along with a number of co-optation on universities and schools. “This has seriously threatened Indonesia’s civil freedom and accelerates Indonesia’s democratic setback,” said Wijayanto. 

This situation, he added, is worsened by the consolidation of oligarchs and the attempts to eradicate oppositions which is evident in the number of political parties that joined the Cabinet in power, which were previously considered to be government oppositions. 

Wijayanto said this has preconditioned Indonesia not long before the pandemic hit. “Which resulted in public policies that do not prioritize human lives, the fate of citizens as the ‘commander’,” he said.

Read: Analyst: Democracy Threatened Under President Jokowi's Second Term

EGI ADYATAMA