Solo – Hundreds of people took part in a demonstration on Friday March 1 in front of the Solo City Hall in Central Java, which is the office of vice presidential candidate number 02 and Solo Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka.
The action was joined by several ormas (mass or social organisations) from greater Solo. A number of 1998 reformasi activists also took part in the action, one of which was Mudrick Sangidu.
The demonstrators brought a number of banners protesting election fraud in the 2024 elections with messages such as "The elections were flooded with social aid, now basic commodities are expensive", "Support a [House] right of inquiry", "Peaceful actions rejecting fraud in the 2024 elections", "Resist and bring down the regime of the oligarchy" and "Mega-Amin, compete honestly and fairly against cheating".
One of the initiators of the action, Alfian Tanjung, explained that the Mega-Amin banner referred to the Mega-Bintang movement that was formed in 1997. "Mega-Aim has roots right. Mega-Bintang, before in 1997", said Tanjung.
The Mega-Bintang movement itself emerged following a split in the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), which was divided between the PDI leadership of Suryadi and supporters of ousted PDI leader Megawati Sukarnoputri.
The Suryadi camp was supported by the administration of former president Suharto, and as a result Megawati decided not to take part in the 1997 elections.
A section of the pro-Megawati PDI membership ended up shifting their support to the United Development Party (PPP), which at the time still used the logo of a star with a green background. The movement called itself Mega-Bintang.
Tanjung explained that the words "Mega-Amin" refer to a desire among sections of the public for presidential election ticket 01 of former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan and National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar (AMIN) and ticket 02 of former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo and former security chief Mahfud MD, which is supported by Megawati, to unite and fight the alleged fraud in the elections.
"Amin is 01. So the meaning is 03 (Ganjar-Mahfud) and 01 (Anies-Muhaimin) uniting. Something like that", said Tanjung.
"It can be said that this is a spontaneous language for the same situation. Both feel disappointed by the [election] process that was ridden with fraud", he continued.
The action itself was held in the form of free speech forum. Speakers took turns in highlighting the various allegations of fraud that occurred during the elections. They also called for the impeachment of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo through a House of Representatives (DPR) right of inquiry.
Widodo is accused of cawe-cawe (meddling) in the election process through Constitutional Court ruling number 90 on the age limit for presidential candidates that allowed his son Rakabuming Raka to run as Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto's vice presidential running mate, the presumptive winners of the election.
The protesters also questioned the flood of social aid (bansos) in the lead up to voting day.
The demonstrators read out five demands in the action. First, they demanded that Widodo immediately step down from his position as president and that he be tried for alleged election fraud.
Second, they demanding that the heads of the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Elections Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) be dismissed and a forensic audit of the KPU and Bawaslu's IT systems be conducted. Third, they reject the results of the election that was ridden with fraud.
Fourth, they demanded that candidate pair number 02, Prabowo-Gibran be disqualified from the elections, and finally, they stated that they fully support the DPR immediately initiating a right of inquiry in order to uncover the alleged fraud during the election process.
"Impeachment [of Widodo] though a right of inquiry, by an interpellation [motion], I think that has already been discussed and has inputted", Tanjung said. (syd/DAL)
Notes
Mega-Bintang – which was actually called Mega-Bintang-Rakyat (Mega-Star-People) – was a slogan popularised during the 1997 election campaign calling on pro-Megawati supporters, the Islamic orientated PPP and broader popular forces to unit in mass movement to replace Suharto. Following the overthrow of Suharto in 1998, Megawati went on to form the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which backed the Ganjar Pranowo ticket in the 2024 presidential elections.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Demo Hak Angket Pemilu Curang di Solo, Spanduk Mega-AMIN Terbentang".]
