Professors, University Students to Protest Indonesia's Declining Democracy before Election Results Announcement

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A number of professors and academics across campuses said they were ready to take to the streets to protest the decline of democracy in President Joko Widodo or Jokowi’s regime. Today, they held a scientific meeting at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia on Thursday, March 14, 2024.

"So those who take to the streets are not only students but also their professors, the lecturers, and the scientists. Because this situation is a matter of life and the destruction of our nation,"  said the Professor of the State University of Jakarta Hafid Abbas. "If we do not join forces, Indonesia cannot resist these deviations of democracy that have occurred so far."

The Scientific Meeting of ‘Universitas Memanggil’ aims to gather various groups of communities and academics from campuses in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi, to warn the government not to damage the democratic process. 

Iqbal Cheisa, a student representative from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Indonesia, said they had agreed to take to the streets before the announcement of the 2024 Presidential Election on October 20. Students and other elements of society are still gathering strength for this upcoming protest. 

The professors and academics involved in the ‘Universitas Memanggil scientific meeting agreed that they would continue to voice their opinions about the decay of democracy that stained the 2024 elections. One of them is the controversial decision of the Constitutional Court that paved the way for Jokowi’s eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka to become a vice presidential candidate. The decision was declared ethically flawed because it involved Gibran’s uncle, Chief Justice Anwar Usman.

INTAN SETIAWANTY

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