As time goes by, people are getting increasingly helpless. The goal of Reformasi, genuine democracy that rests on people’s sovereignty, is being stripped away. The nation is being choked by elite groups who run a political system rife with conspiracy or political cartels.
People’s sovereignty has been hijacked by political parties. They control the House and the executive branch through an election law that reeks of political cartels and tyranny. The president can only be nominated by a political party, or a party coalition with a minimum 25% of the national vote, or 20% of seats in the House. It’s a system restricted by the so-called presidential threshold. This provision clearly violates the people’s sovereignty as stipulated in the Constitution. It also violates the universal principle of democracy.
This tyrannical regulation was phase one in hijacking people’s sovereignty, to be further cemented by controlling the judiciary, pulling the Constitutional Court into the inner circle of tyranny. Lawsuit after lawsuit against the presidential threshold was defeated by the Constitutional Court, ruling that the people have no right to sue, no legal standing; only political parties reserve the rights to change the presidential threshold regulation.
Reformasi has made certain entrepreneurs become filthy rich. They control Indonesia’s natural resources. The new rich emerged from the mining, plantation and trade sector. They control the imports of essential food items such as sugar, soybeans, wheat, horticultural products, and many others. Meanwhile, people living around mining and plantation concession areas are left in poverty, struggling with natural disasters due to massive exploitation of natural resources and deforestation.
These tycoons and magnates then morphed into a major political force, a business oligarchy, in collaboration with political parties. The 2014 presidential election was the first litmus test. It was a resounding success. The policies of the oligarchic regime gave huge benefits to the two oligarchic groups, fully supported by the House, and were closely protected by the Constitutional Court. The tax amnesty program implemented from July 2016 to March 2017 greatly benefited both oligarchs, businessmen and members of political parties. Ill-gotten wealth was cleared, legitimized.