Reformasi Dispatch

As we gear up for an election year we are turning to our donors but this time we are giving back! As a token of our gratitude for your US$20 donation we are making available exclusive content, starting with a special podcast episode recapping the fourth presidential debate. Kevin and Jeff offer up analysis of who had a good night and who fell short. Donors will get insight into whether Indonesia’s fifth presidential election will go to a runoff in June. And if it does which candidate will make the cut. We also discuss how has the Indonesian electorate changed since 2019 and how the candidates must pivot to reflect young voters who who don’t remember life before the country’s transition to democracy and yet crave a cleaner environment and better jobs and higher quality of life. To donate and download your exclusive content, follow the links in the show notes. And thank-you.https://www.buymeacoffee.com/reformasi/e/209222It takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

Should Gerindra Chair Prabowo Subianto be thankful that President Widodo has provided vital backing?  Or should the president be grateful that Prabowo has provided a lifeline?  How these two regard one another may shape Indonesia's political outlook for some time.  For 'Perth-spective,' we turn to Murdoch University's Indo-Pacific Research Center and its senior fellow Ian Wilson, who is actually currently at Singapore's ISEAS.  Prof Wilson recounts Prabowo's past campaigning and Widodo's own political forays in recent years to assess the logicality of campaign ads about 'continuity'.  Also: Jeff and Kevin touch on poll data and the effects of debates on the campaign.Get our special episode on the 4th Presidential Debate on:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/reformasi/extrasIt takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

Four experts, including a human rights analyst, renewables expert, environmental scientist, and Eurasia Group director, discuss the upcoming elections, the economy, energy, and sustainability in Indonesia. They touch on topics such as the potential changes in cabinet, current polling situation, democratic backsliding, air pollution, climate change, and the state of the Indonesian economy.

How resilient are the independent democratic institutions in Indonesia's current election process?  A chief monitor of electoral agencies, Khoirunissa of the pro-democracy NGO Perludem, examines campaign finance issues, enforcement of rules on gender equality and preparations for conducting candidate debates.  She also takes note of changing roles for key institutions that civil-society organizations (CSOs) had in the past supported as champions -- and points out that CSOs must now remain "alert."  Also in this episode: Jeff and Kevin discuss latest poll data and Ganjar's prolonged struggle to delineate an electoral position.Get our special episode on the 4th Presidential Debate on:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/reformasi/extrasIt takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

Human rights and the rule-of-law received rare scrutiny in a well-conducted first debate.  Awkward moments occurred for Prabowo Subianto, but new polling shows him very well cushioned.  Also discussed: a bill to end Jakarta governor elections, with bewilderingly broad support; and ministers narrowly avert (for now) a broad-backed effort to boost Anwar Usman and perhaps restore him as Constitutional Court chief justice.  And in memoriam: the passing of Southeast Asia's longest-serving foreign correspondent, John McBeth, dearly departed at age 79.Get our special episode on the 4th Presidential Debate on:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/reformasi/extrasIt takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

Gibran Rakabuming's VP nomination triggered a poll swing.  Author and Chatham House Asia-Pacific Director Ben Bland joins the pod to lend perspective.  Also: Ganjar's remarks on reformasi and President Widodo's  fireside chat with Joe Biden.Get our special episode on the 4th Presidential Debate on:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/reformasi/extrasIt takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

After a verdict favoring the president's son, the president's brother-in-law lost his post as Constitutional Court chief justice for having egregiously violated ethics.  To examine the details of the Ethics Panel ruling, Reformasi Dispatch consulted Bivitri Susanti, a prominent constitutional law expert with Jentera University.  The ruling cites Anwar Usman for failing to recuse, mishandling administration and, most brazenly, miscategorizing two of the court's nine opinions -- thereby converting a 6-3 ruling against into a 5-4 ruling in favor. Bivitri discusses what might now ensue through a new case, #141, and the implications for the General Election Commission (KPU) and the presidential ticket of Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming.Get our special episode on the 4th Presidential Debate on:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/reformasi/extrasIt takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

Megawati visted her father's mausoleum in Blitar and, perhaps having drawn inspiration, permitted party officials immediately thereafter to uncork zingers aimed at Gibran and Prabowo -- whom Djarot Hidayat now calls the 'Neo New Order'.  Jeff and Kevin discuss the implications for the election - both legislative and presidential.  Also, background for the forthcoming Ethics Panel decision on Constitutional Court Chief Justice Anwar Usman and its implications -- as well as observations from Steven ('Unmuted') Handoko on his visit to the Support Palestine Rally addressed by Anies Baswedan.Get our special episode on the 4th Presidential Debate on:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/reformasi/extrasIt takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

A series of constitutional court decisions last week regarding age requirements for presidential and vice presidential candidates have carved out a loophole seemingly tailor made for President Joko Widodo's eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the mayor of Solo. Anyone seeking the highest or second highest office in the land must be 40 years old, according to a 2017 law. The court last week said the minimum age does not apply to anyone who has been elected to public office. As a result Rakabuming, 36, registered as vice presidential candidate alongside Prabowo Subianto last week. Kevin and Jeff discuss the backlash among civil society. The chief justice of the court is President Widodo's brother in law his ruling coming just days before the deadline to register explicitly favours his nephew. Kevin argues there is real concern whether Indonesia's two decade long experiment with democracy may have run its course. Seth Soderborg joins Jeff in the second half of the show to argue that Rakabuming's role as VP candidate is to give Widodo sway in the Prabowo campaign as the defence minister and two time former candidate attempts to shed his image as a conservative firebrand and tap into Widodo's base of religious moderates. At this stage, the election appears to be Prabowo's to lose. Only question is will Indonesia's voters play along?Get our special episode on the 4th Presidential Debate on:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/reformasi/extrasIt takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!

200 civil-society groups decried a re-writing of Indonesia's Election Law enabling the president's son to stand for vice presodent.  Jeff and Kevin discuss the implications and why there is hesitation about a Prabowo-Rakabuming ticket.  Also: Ganjar chooses Mahfud and police pursue the KPK.Get our special episode on the 4th Presidential Debate on:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/reformasi/extrasIt takes a lot of money to run a podcast. You need subscription fees for hosting, audio recording services, editor's salary and music licensing. Luckily, you, estemeed listeners of Reformasi Dispatch podcast can help us.You can donate to us on buymeacoffee.com/reformasi and help us grow!