Recap of the Indonesian 2024 Election (The Blemished Reputation of the Constitutional Court Due to Nepotism Practices)

_{General elections should be a celebration of the people, not a celebration of the elite. Image source here}

I feel compelled to explore deeper into the drama and political intrigues behind the Indonesian presidential election of 2024. It has been a widely known secret among us Indonesians how... More precisely, those who are vigilant and sensitive to the emerging signs. Some others regret their choices only after realizing they have been deceived by their favorite presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

Based on the decision of the General Election Commission (KPU) on March 20th, the presidential and vice-presidential candidates pair Prabowo-Gibran were declared the landslide winners in this election, with a total of 96,214,691 votes. This pair successfully defeated two others. Anies-Muhaimin, who received 40,971,906 votes and Ganjar-Mahfud with a total of 27,040,878 votes. News source

But what saddens me the most is the civil society groups openly defending the fraud, even though they get nothing in return except being used as political stepping stones by irresponsible individuals. Once again, everywhere civil society becomes the victims of the greed of the elites

_{Democracy requires a sound mind. When common sense dies, that's where the beginning of what I call 'democracy disaster' starts. Image source here}

I speak here not as a supporter or a buzzer of any particular presidential candidate, but this writing is solely based on my disgust as a citizen of this supposedly democratic country, where freedom from its own people is no longer found. Indeed, the elites do not kill the people—openly—to silence voices, but they kill freedom of thought by engaging in smear campaigns. Simply put, they deceive the people.

Punishment for the Constitutional Court

The Constitutional Court basically has the authority to make decisions on the following matters: (1) Reviewing laws against the 1945 Constitution (2) Deciding disputes over the authority of state institutions whose authority is granted by the 1945 Constitution (3) Deciding the dissolution of political parties and (4) Resolving disputes from the results of general elections.

In this context, as a citizen, I will only talk about point (4). Some time ago, a surprising event managed to stir up the entire Indonesia. The Constitutional Court, almost suddenly, decided to amend Article 169 letter q of Law Number 7 of 2017 on General Elections, which states, 'candidates for vice president must be at least 40 (forty) years old', to 'be at least 40 years old OR have previously held a position as a regional head'. The phrase 'have previously held a position as a regional head' seems to justify that there will be interested individuals who will nominate themselves in the future.

This is based on the demand made by a student named Almas Tsaqibbirru. This unknown young man's name has never been heard in the national political arena before. How could his name suddenly come to prominence with his ambition to change the regulations regarding the age of vice presidential candidates?

Soon after, the biological son of the current president (Jokowi) named Gibran Rakabuming declared his participation in the 2024 elections as a vice-presidential candidate alongside Prabowo as president. Fyi, Gibran is currently serving as the mayor of Surakarta, or in other words, he is a regional head. Is this a coincidence? It's too good to be true to be an unplanned coincidence for me.

An even more astonishing fact is that the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court when the decision was ratified was Anwar Usman, Jokowi's brother-in-law or in other words, Gibran's UNCLE. At this point, can it still be considered a coincidence?

Only time will tell...

_{The statue of the lady of justice symbolizes the principle of Isonomia, commonly known as 'equality before the law.' There is no privilege for anyone in the eyes of the law, even if they are the king's child. Image source here}