The Constitutional Court ruled on 20 March that national and local legislators are barred from resigning their posts with the stated purpose of contesting regional executive elections. Regional elections are typically held several months after national elections, and the complaint detailed numerous cases where newly-elected MPs resigned ostensibly to contest regional elections, but in practice appeared to be resigning to allow party leadership to reallocate parliamentary seats for personal or patrimonial considerations. In the most recent electoral cycle, nineteen MPs-elect resigned their seats between winning election and taking their seats to instead contest the November 2024 regional head elections. Lawmakers critical and supportive of the ruling said parliament plans to take its guidance into account as it revises electoral laws in upcoming parliamentary sessions.

Source: Jakarta Post, Kompas

President Prabowo Subianto appointed a currently serving general to run the state’s food procurement company on 11 February, the first time that a general has served in such a role since the military-dominated authoritarian government of Suharto of 1967-1998. Indonesian legal experts and rights activists argued the appointment violated laws that limit the appointment of military service members to government posts to a limited number of defence-related ministries. The move is part of a broader trend of relying on the military to carry out civilian government projects that has raised warnings about a “slippery slope” of return to the military-dominated government of Suharto-era Indonesia. Prabowo-allied members of parliament are also planning to introduce a bill to allow generals to be appointed to top civilian government jobs.

Update: Indonesia ratified amendments to Law No. 34 of 2004 on the Indonesian National Armed Forces on 20 March allowing members of the military to occupy positions in 14 civilian ministries. Military officials will also no longer have to resign or retire in order to take up civilian posts. Indonesian civil society and student activists criticized the lack of transparency of deliberations and the speed with which the bill was passed: only two months after President Prabowo requested it. The announcement was met with large student protests outside the parliament building.

Sources: Reuters, Jakarta Post (1), Jakarta Post (2), Dari Mulut, The Jakarta Post (3)

Indonesia’s parliament revised the country’s mining law on 18 February, giving religious groups, small businesses, and university-owned entities priority status in owning and operating mines. The decision was protested by student groups opposed to university participation in mining and condemned by civil society organizations for weakening governance and environmental oversight of the sector. Critics are particularly concerned about the ability of the above “nontraditional mining actors” to obtain concessions without a public tender, which would exempt them from demonstrating environmental, technical, or financial qualifications and provides significant opportunities for corruption and political clientelism. The bill’s proponents say it will distribute Indonesia’s mining wealth more equitably and that it includes stricter controls on land use.

Sources: Jakarta Post, Reuters, Monga Bay, ASEAN Briefing

Indonesia launched an annual free health screening program for all Indonesians on 10 February in an effort to improve public health through earlier detection of chronic and congenital diseases. Together with a program providing free lunch for all students, the health screenings were one of President Prabowo’s core election promises. However, civil society and legal experts have raised concerns about the practicality and legality of funding the programs through cutting expenditures in much of the public sector. The budget cuts have not been made transparently and the government has not made clear how the size or distribution of budget cuts was determined or justified. Civil servants have raised concerns about their ability to continue to effectively carry out their duties. Civil society criticism has focused on cuts at anti-corruption, law enforcement, and the judiciary in particular, raising concerns about judicial oversight and the ability to investigate or prosecute anti-corruption cases.

Sources: South China Morning Post, Jakarta Post (1), Jakarta Post (2), Jakarta Post (3), Jakarta Post (4), Indonesia Business Post

The House of Representatives (DPR) unanimously opted to revise DPR Regulation 1 of 2020 on 3 February, thereby granting itself the power to “periodically evaluate” all state officials appointed by the government and make binding recommendations for their dismissal. The agencies subject to the new oversight rules include the Corruption Eradication Commission, the General Election Commission, the Constitutional Court, and the Supreme Court. Legal experts criticized the new rules as unconstitutional and as excessive legislative interference in the operations of independent executive agencies. While by statute the DPR has the power to nominate and investigative officials, the new rules conflict with existing statutes defining evaluation and dismissal separately for each agency and delegating the decision to the executive. Constitutional law experts say the rule is a violation of the separation of powers and amounts to legislative overreach. Under the new rules, the DPR could dismiss civil servants who are not aligned with the government’s politics swiftly and without going through established procedures for legislative oversight.

Sources: Jakarta Post (1), Kompas, Jakarta Post (2)

The Constitutional Court ruled unconstitutional on 2 January a section of the 2017 General Elections Law governing presidential election nominating procedures. This part of the law required a party, or coalition of parties, to hold a minimum of 20 per cent of the seats in the national legislature, or to have won 25 per cent of the popular vote in the previous legislative election, in order to nominate a presidential candidate. The ruling agreed with the university students who petitioned the court that the minimum threshold unfairly benefited large parties and limited individual voting rights. Although the ruling did not establish a new nominating standard, Indonesian legal experts expected the new system to result in a more pluralistic electoral environment that benefits both more parties and the voting public.

Sources: Jakarta Post (1), Jakarta Post (2), The Diplomat

Indonesia’s Constitutional Court sided with labour union petitioners in 21 of 71 points in a legal challenge to the much-contested 2020 Job Creation Law, also known as the Omnibus law, on 1 November. The ruling will require local officials to set sectoral minimal wages, expanded employee protections when an employee is laid off, required ministries to act more directly to reduce conflicts between employers and employees, and ordered parliament to amend key parts of the law within two years or the entire law will become unconstitutional automatically. The Court had previously ruled other parts of the law unconstitutional in 2021 because lawmakers had failed to follow proper procedures during its passage through parliament.

Sources: The Diplomat, Industriall