If that headline sounds sensational to you, well that’s because it is. We kind of wrote about this happening before. In fact, we’re pretty sure Prabowo has been planning this all along. But far more respectable publications are hopping aboard the Prabowo paranoia train now as well.
Case in point, the ballsy editorial in today’s Jakarta Globe: Merah Putih’s Iron-Fist Master Plan Initiated.
The TLDR version of the “nightmare scenario” put forth in the Jakarta Globe and elswhere is that, with RUU Pilkada passed, the Merah Putih Coalition put together by losing Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto now has the power, theoretically, to block Jokowi’s agenda, impeach him, amend the constitution, scrap direct elections for the president and install Prabowo Subianto as our new dictator.
Scary? Yes! Possible? Very much so.
Yesterday’s Constitutional Court’s rejection of the MD3 law, which will almost certainly give control of the leadership of the House of Representative’s to the Merah Putih Coalition, is yet another step on the road to the New New Order.
So maybe they have the power, but are there any signs that Merah Putih is actually conniving enough to go through with this sinister plot?
Yep, “sinister plot” is the term used by The Jakarta Post to describe the plan. That article also has the lowdown on a supposedly real draft amendment to regulations governing the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) that was making the rounds this weekend. The MPR was the group charged with carrying out presidential elections during the New Order era, and the draft amendment would strengthen the MPR’s abilities to impeach the president.
The Jakarta Post article also quotes Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, a political researcher at the National Science Institute, who said reinstating indirect presidential elections was almost certainly Prabowo’s ultimate goal.
“Prabowo must have realized that it would be difficult for him to win via a direct election. So, he will forcibly destroy the system and return it to the New Order style,” he said.
We don’t have much to add to this conversation besides our photoshop of Emperor Prabowo that we hope will make the meme rounds and at least get Indonesia’s nerds riled up about this. Because everybody should be getting riled up by this. Hong Kongers are fighting for their democracry right now and so should we.
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