Jakarta – The Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy has criticised President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's state of the nation address at the annual session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) on Friday morning, August 16.
Setara believes that Widodo – who will step down as president in October – should have been able to convey his leadership achievements comprehensively after being president for 10 years.
Instead of conveying his leadership achievement comprehensively, Setara believes that Widodo actually conveyed the achievements partially without acknowledging his failures.
"Aside from only focusing on the aspects of economic development, which was also bland and unconvincing, the actual conditions are that the public's purchasing power is declining and there is the threat of layoffs in various sectors", Setara said in a written statement on Friday.
"Jokowi's achievements in economic performance were also not balanced with the recognition of the rights of citizens who are victims of development", continued the statement.
Setara also criticized Widodo last speech which did not touch on the achievements in the fields of law, human rights and democracy.
Setara regretted that Widodo's speech only related to the achievement in these fields by bragging about the success of the new Criminal Code (KUHP).
Not only that, Setara also highlighted Widodo's mental revolution program which was heralded at the beginning of his leadership, but was not mentioned at the end of his term.
"The noise about this idea at the beginning of Jokowi's term in office related to human development through the policy of a mental revolution, was not talked about at all, or to which point this leap forward was achieved", Setara said.
"The speech was like a picture of the setbacks which were partly covered over with economic success", they added.
Colonial style development
In the same tone, the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) also criticised Widodo's speech saying that the successes claimed by Widodo were the exact opposite of the actual conditions on the ground.
Walhi also mentioned Widodo's claim that he had developed Indonesia without it being cantered on the island of Java, which is just a claim and has instead fostered disaster.
"Several claims of success such as fair, equitable and Indonesia-centrist development have actually caused environmental damage and human rights violations through for example National Strategic Projects (PSN)", Walhi said.
Walhi also criticised Widodo's speech for showing off achievement in the form of successfully developing strategic policies through the Omnibus Law on Job Creation (Cipta Kerja), the Nusantara National Capital (IKN) Law and the Jakarta Special Region (DKJ) Law.
Walhi believes that these and a number of other laws have actually further burdened the country's economy and exacerbated social conditions that are getting worse.
"Strategic policies that are referred to as a model of government transition such as the Cipta Karja Law and the IKN Law actually resulted in the deprivation of space and burdened the state budget", Walhi wrote. (mab/kid)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Setara & Walhi Kritik Pidato Terakhir Jokowi: Hambar, Tak Meyakinkan".]
