What’s happening today in Indonesian politics teaches us a great lesson on the importance of opposition. In this regard, we do expect that whoever loses the 2024 presidential election can take a role of the opposition to the next administration. However, will they be willing and able to do so?

Most of pro-democracy and 1998 reform activists are focusing their resources and energy on strongly criticizing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Prabowo-Gibran pairing for nepotism and politics dynasty issues, and one can understand why. At the same time, we should not forget to monitor the other candidates too.

Former Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who is widely known as Anies Baswedan’s political mentor and patron figure, is not listed in the official campaign team of Anies-Muhaimin Iskandar. However, we all know Kalla is backing up Anies in the 2024 presidential race....

Vedi Hadiz, professor of Asian Studies and Director of Asia Institute at University of Melbourne, feels sorry for his colleagues in the civil society, who recently expressed their grievance on vulgar promotion of nepotism by President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo. Hadiz said it’s naive for them to expect Jokowi would do differently because of how he came to power.

House Speaker Puan Maharani, who is also the daughter of PDIP Chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri, met with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo at the State Palace Jakarta on Monday (Nov. 20). The meeting is truly worth highlighting because it was the first time Puan met with Jokowi after the polemics surrounding the Constitutional Court (MK) and the President’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, who becomes the running mate of Prabowo Subianto, the strongest rival of PDIP’s presidential candidate Ganjar Pranowo.

LSI Denny JA found Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka extending their lead into almost 12 percent margin above Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD. Meanwhile, another pollster, Indonesia Political Opinion (IPO), oddly found that Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar overtook...