Indonesian President Joko Widodo displays his ballot paper for the 2019 elections in Jakarta (Getty Images)

Jakarta -

A wave of protests recently swept the Indonesia Academy, starting from dozens of universities, calling on all political forces and figures to “save the democratic experiment in the country,” and for the legislative and presidential elections scheduled to be held on February 14 of this year, to be “fair, impartial, and governed by the values, morals, and laws of the country.” ".

The beginning was at the famous “Gajjah Madh” University in the “Jog Jakarta” area in central Java on January 31, and the next day at the Indonesian Islamic University in the same city.

Hundreds of professors from dozens of universities read out the statements, the recordings of which later spread across social networking sites, calling on Indonesian President Joko Widodo (known as Jokowi) and other politicians to return to the democratic path and its values ​​ahead of the elections in which his son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the governor of the city of Solo, is running for office. Vice President with current Defense Minister Retired General Prabowo Subianto.

Propaganda for presidential candidate and Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto (right) and a photo of President Joko Widodo on a street in Jakarta (French)

The president's son ran

The "Progress Indonesia" coalition announced the candidacy of the president's son on October 22, days after accepting a legal amendment regarding the minimum age for candidates for the positions of president and vice president, which was approved by the Constitutional Court on the 16th of the same month.

The Constitutional Court approved an amendment to the 2017 Election Law, allowing those under 40 years of age to run if they have experience in an elected executive position at the regional, governorate, or city level. In this case, the president’s 36-year-old son will be able to run according to the amendment.

Controversy and protests prevailed among academics and intellectuals in light of widespread interest in the local media after the decision of the Constitutional Court, and the subsequent removal of its president, Judge Anwar Othman - who is the son-in-law of President Joko Widodo - from his position by a decision of the ethical body of the court, due to what the body considered to be violations of procedural rules. And the ethics according to which the work of the court is conducted.

Vice Presidential candidate and son of the President Gebran Rakabuming Raka (center) at an election rally in Bali (Anatolia)

An important turning point

The statements of academics came from various orientations and trends, including governmental, Islamic, Christian, and civil society, or those associated with major institutions such as the Muhammadiyah universities throughout the Indonesian regions, in a wave of broad academic demand discourse that has been unprecedented for many years.

The protests began in more than 40 universities, according to statistics from local newspapers, and historian Asfi Warman Adam likened them to what happened before the overthrow of former President Suharto in 1998, in the movement of dozens of academics and intellectuals and the statement of their reform demands at that time.

The editor of Kompas newspaper recalled how “the voice of young people and intellectuals has always been heard loudly at pivotal moments in Indonesia’s history, in the moment of national renaissance in 1908 during the colonial era, the Indonesian youth oath in 1928, the declaration of independence in 1945, the bloody events of 1965 and 1966, and others.”

The data is unanimous in demanding that Indonesian President Joko Widodo and state politicians adhere to neutrality in his position and not mobilize any of the state institutions and elements in favor of a specific candidate or coalition. They also demanded that any social aid from the state budget distributed before the elections not be politicized.

Academics also called on senior officials who are candidates or who are part of electoral campaign teams in political alliances to resign from their positions or take leaves from their jobs during the election period.

They called for state officials to be aware of the importance of elections being just and fair, for the Election Commission to conduct the vote objectively, independently, professionally and responsibly without bias towards any party, for the Elections Oversight Authority to deal firmly with any violations, and for citizens and civil society organizations to participate in monitoring the progress of work. Elections during all their stages.

The universities' statements confirmed that one of the achievements of the political reform - which was achieved in 1998 and later in Indonesia after the resignation of former President Suharto after 32 years of rule - was the holding of fair and impartial elections.

Universities' statements say that one of the tangible results of political reform is holding fair and just elections (Al Jazeera)

President Jokowi adds

On January 24, while accompanying the presidential candidate he supports and current Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto at Halim Military Airport in Jakarta, the Indonesian President stated that he has the right to support a specific candidate and participate in electoral campaigns outside his official working hours in the presidency without using state facilities. and its properties, and a number of his ministers defended his right to announce his political position like any citizen.

The Presidential Palace denied that the president's visits to the regions, and the distribution of social aid during them, were linked to electoral campaigns and attracting voters' votes.

However, what is noteworthy is that one of the polls published by the newspaper “Kompas” last December indicates that the percentage of street satisfaction with President Jokowi ranges between 60-80%, which makes the influence of his rule during the past 9 years and his image in the minds of voters an important factor. Due to the success of his son, Ghibran, in winning the position of vice president with presidential candidate and Defense Minister Prabowo.

President Jokowi came out in a second statement, later, explaining in some detail the provisions of the 2017 Election Law that allow him to stand alongside a candidate or participate in electoral campaigns, which expanded the circle of political and legal controversy in this regard. Then President Jokowi made up for his previous statement with a third statement of his own. On February 6, he said that he would not participate in the election campaigns despite his right to do so.

It was noteworthy that President Jokowi's family was present during a large election rally, on Wednesday, in North Sumatra province for the presidential candidate, Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, and President Jokowi's son, the vice presidential candidate, Ghibran, including his second son, Kaisang Pangarib, who recently assumed the presidency of the Indonesian Solidarity Party, in addition to Bobby Nasution, his son-in-law. President Jokowi, the governor of Medan.

Source: Al Jazeera