Jakarta – The Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) and the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) have called on the public to consolidate and prepare for civil disobedience.
The call was made in response to the House of Representative's (DPR) decision to revise the regional elections law which is seen as deviating from a recent Constitutional Court (MK) ruling that revoked the minimum threshold requirement for political parties to nominate candidates in regional elections (cakada) and restored the minimum age limit for candidates to 30 years.
"The LBH and the YLBHI calls on all Indonesian people, workers, farmers, the urban poor and students as well as young people in Indonesia, to consolidate themselves and prepare for civil disobedience to stop the deceitful and vulgar practices of the DPR. The DPD [Regional Representatives Council] and the government which are playing a parliamentary circus of tyranny to accommodate the interests of the alliance of successors to the 'New Order regime'", said YLBHI Chairperson Muhammad Isnur in a press statement on Thursday August 22.
According to Isnur, the DPR's move to bring the Draft Law on Regional Elections (RUU Pilkada) to a plenary session to be ratified has trampled on the people's sovereignty. He also invited the ordinary people to take to the streets.
"It's time to take to the streets, demolished 'the devils who stand astride', we will go into action, speak out and hold actions until we win!", said Isnur.
Isnur is of the view that the DPR is attempting to annul the two Constitutional Court rulings Number 60 and 70 of 2024 on the nomination threshold and the age limit for candidates to run in regional elections. Isnur suspects that the DPR's efforts to annul the two rulings have two objectives.
First, there are two scenarios related to ruling number 60, namely by continuing to apply Article 40 on the threshold requiring political parties or a coalition of parties to hold 20 percent of seats in regional parliaments (DPRD) in order to nominate a candidate or only enforce this in the 2029 election of regional heads, rather than the upcoming November regional elections.
Second, restoring the age limit for candidate regional heads so that it applies from the date of the inauguration, according to the Supreme Court ruling in May, even though Constitutional Court Ruling Number 70 asserts that a candidate must be of the minimum age on the date of their registration, not inauguration.
"It can be predicted that that they will move fast in the parliament", said Isnur.
"For some time, the coalition of political parties commanded by Prabowo [Subianto] and President Jokowi [Joko Widodo] have been trying to build a fat coalition to contest the 2024 regional elections", he continued.
According to Isnur, this effort is to ensure that that there is a good possibility that the candidates they back will contest an empty ballot box or puppet candidate.
"This shows that the actors in the DPR are not running this show alone. Jokowi as president and Prabowo as the presidential elect clearly have an interest in the revival of the articles that were annulled by the MK", said Isnur.
"The DPR's rotten scenario is a signal [that they intend] to secure the interests of Prabowo's alliance of New Order remnants and President Jokowi's political dynasty to back his son Kaesang Pangarep as a regional head and sole candidate ticket in Jakarta", he continued.
Isnur added that this is not the first time that the collaboration of Widodo's greed together with the DPR has hijacked the pillars of democracy to include the interests of his political dynasty.
Some time ago, Widodo issued a government regulation in lieu of the law on the Omnibus Law on Job Creation (Cipta Kerja) that had been declared conditionally unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.
In fact, there have been several other regulations such as when Widodo and the DPR revised the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Law to deflate the corruption eradication agenda.
"Ten years in power, the regime under the command of Jokowi has truly shown the deceptive practice of manipulating democracy and the rule of law", said Isnur.
Earlier, the DPR's Legislation Board (Baleg) agreed on the Draft Regional Elections Law in a meeting on Wednesday August 21. The bill was approved by eight out of the nine factions in the House. Only the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) rejected the bill.
The discussions on the draft law were carried out in less than seven hours. On several occasions the Baleg ignored interruptions by the PDI-P.
The DPR had planned to ratify the bill at today's plenary meeting, Thursday August 22, but this was postponed because it did not meet a quorum.
Meanwhile, Widodo claimed that he respects the processes that are taking place in all institutions including the DPR. He also stated that he respects the ruling by the Constitutional Court. "We respect the authority and decisions of each state institution", said Widodo. (ryn/pmg)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "YLBHI Ajak Rakyat Siapkan Pembangkangan Sipil, Setop Praktik Culas DPR".]
