Jokowi Allies Trigger Outcry With Move to Undercut Court Ruling

Chandra Asmara
·3-min read

(Bloomberg) -- Tensions are growing in Indonesia, where a group of lawmakers on Wednesday moved to undercut a court ruling that would have blocked Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s youngest son from running in a key election this year.

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A day after the Constitutional Court rejected a petition to change the minimum age for candidates in regional elections, a key parliamentary committee approved changes that would effectively ease the age requirement, according to panel head Achmad Baidowi. Those could be passed by parliament that’s controlled by Jokowi as soon as Thursday.

Within hours, the hashtag #KawalPutusanMK calling for a defense of the court decision was trending on X, with roughly half a million posts. There was already anger over a 2023 decision by the Constitutional Court, then chaired by the president’s brother-in-law, that revised a separate set of age limits and paved the way for his eldest son to become vice president in October.

“This is dangerous for the government,” Indonesia’s former Vice President Jusuf Kalla said in an interview before the committee’s decision on Wednesday.

Kalla, who served in Jokowi’s first five-year term, warned there could be unrest mirroring the riots in Bangladesh. “Let’s say this causes a political crisis, at a time when our economy is also in a difficult state.”

The Constitutional Court on Tuesday ruled that candidates aged less than 30 years old cannot run for governor or deputy governor. Kaesang Pangarep, the president’s youngest son, had been expected to run to be deputy governor of Central Java this year, but he won’t turn 30 until a month after the polls.

Only lawmakers from PDI-P opposed the revision in the committee vote, arguing that parliament should abide by the constitutional court’s ruling, rather than the supreme court’s ruling.

PDI-P is the single biggest party in the parliament, but doesn’t wield a majority. Still, a significant public backlash could delay or derail a full legislative vote.

Some of the online anger is because Jokowi came into power campaigning as an everyman amid widespread frustration with corruption and nepotism. Now, his 36-year-old eldest son is vice president-elect, and his youngest could be on course for a regional power base.

Indeed, Kaesang had appeared prepared for a regional role after the Supreme Court in May eased the minimum age limit for candidates in gubernatorial elections, saying a governor only need to be at least 30 years old at the time of inauguration. That was then undercut by this week’s Constitutional Court ruling.

“The Constitutional Court’s decision interpreted a law, while the Supreme Court interpreted an implementing regulation,” Bivitri Susanti, a legal expert and political commentator from the Indonesia Jentera School of Law, said of the court rulings. “It is clear, it should follow the new rules. There is no choice but to implement the (constitutional) court’s decision.”

Amid the online furore, the ministry of home affairs, said the legal revision was a parliamentary initiative, while parliament denied that its discussions were carried out in a hurry because of the court decision.

Prior to parliament’s actions, Constitutional Court judge Saldi Isra said in the court ruling that if the election commission didn’t implement its decision, any candidate who didn’t meet age requirements would be declared invalid.

“It is too risky to circumvent the court’s decision as the nomination is inconsistent and invalid. If that happens, it will be very bad for legal certainty,” Titi Anggraini, an advisory board member of the Association for Elections and Democracy, or Perludem, an independent, non-profit advocacy group, said earlier Wednesday.

(Rewrites throughout with fresh details, comments.)

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