78 Views
Southeast Asia
Organized Panel Session
The upcoming presidential election would likely turn out to be a poorly produced sequel of the rematch between the incumbent President Joko Widodo or commonly known as Jokowi against his nemesis, General Prabowo Subianto. The result would be much more predictable: it will end with Jokowi getting re-elected. Most political parties have embraced a defeatist, yet realistic, view. For most political parties, the 2019 election is merely a prelude to the real political battle of 2024, when President Jokowi is barred from running again, and the playing field is level for every contender.
While the 2019 election will likely to be dull, no one would predict that 2019 could be the beginning of the end of the presidential election. In the last three years, the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) has been quietly working on attempts to amend Indonesia’s 1945 Constitution. There was broad consensus among the politicians on the need to reinstate the concept of State Policy Guidelines (GBHN). If the GBHN is reinstated, the MPR may well return to being the highest authority in the land. The reinstatement of GBHN could result in a much more dominant MPR and could conceivably lead to the MPR having the power to remove (or appoint) presidents based on their ability to implement the guidelines. Thus, the issue is whether the dull 2019 presidential election will open the way for a constitutional amendment, which eventually will scrap the direct presidential election.
Bivitri Susanti
Jentera Law School, Indonesia