ASSESSMENTS

Jokowi's Dynastic Ambitions Risk Plunging Indonesia Into Crisis

Aug 26, 2024 | 18:26 GMT

People gather in front of the East Java Provincial Parliament in Surabaya, Indonesia, on Aug. 23, 2024, as they protest against a move to overturn a Constitutional Court decision on election rules.
People gather in front of the East Java Provincial Parliament in Surabaya, Indonesia, on Aug. 23, 2024, as they protest against a move to overturn a Constitutional Court decision on election rules.

(JUNI KRISWANTO/AFP PHOTO/AFP via Getty Images)

In Indonesia, protests and a dispute between the country's parliament and top court highlight an inter-governmental power struggle that risks devolving into a deeper political crisis in the world's third-largest democracy. On Aug. 22, thousands protested outside Indonesia's parliament building in Jakarta. The protest turned unruly and eventually violent as demonstrators set fires, burned tires and attempted to storm the building, prompting police to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse them. The protest was against a legislative move overturning a pair of Aug. 20 Constitutional Court decisions. The first decision prevented President Joko ''Jokowi'' Widodo's youngest son, 29-year-old Kaesang Pangarep, from running for deputy governor of Jakarta in the upcoming November gubernatorial election by retaining the age threshold for candidacy at 30 years old (as of election day, rather than inauguration day). The second ruling altered nomination rules for governorships, changing the threshold to nominate gubernatorial candidates from...

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