Yet another victory for the Gerindra-led Merah Putih coalition. First there was the passing of the MD3 law, followed by giving the power to elect regional officials to regional councils. Now Emperor-to-be Prabowo has Indonesian parliaments in a tight grip by the balls, or ball (sorry, couldn’t resist).
After successfully installing Setya Novanto as the speaker of the DPR, the Merah Putih coalition’s dominance of parliament is complete, as Zulkifli Hasan of the Demokrat Party was voted in as the speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Wednesday morning.
In what proved to be a slim victory, Zulkifli Hasan and his deputies edged out the leadership package put forward by the PDI-P led Indonesia Hebat coalition 347 to 330 votes in the MPR.
We were paranoid about this before, but it seems like everything has gone according to plan for Prabowo, the never-say-die losing presidential candidate. It’s worth remembering that the MPR has the power to impeach the president. This means Prabowo is one bill away from giving the MPR the power to elect presidents. And guess who’s gonna be president with Jokowi out of the picture?
In all seriousness, this divide between Merah Putih and Indonesia Hebat is doing Indonesia a lot of harm. Worst case scenario, Jokowi gets impeached, Prabowo becomes president, and it will be the 1998 riots all over again. Will Indonesians truly stand idly by while our democratic rights are taken away from us this time? We will soon find out.
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