The 2024 Indonesian local election law protests, also known as Emergency Alert for Indonesia () or Indonesian Democratic Emergency (), were public and student-led demonstrations against the House of Representatives for drafting a bill on regional head elections (pilkada) that contradicts the Constitutional Court's ruling and power, intended to regulate the 2024 Indonesian local elections.
The hashtags #KawalPutusanMK or #KawalKeputusanMK (Escort MK's Decision), #TolakPolitikDinasti (Reject Political Dynasty), and #TolakPilkadaAkal2an (Reject Manipulated Local Elections) became widely popular on social media. This online movement culminated in nationwide demonstrations on 22 August 2024, as people took to the streets to express their discontent.
Background
Laws of Indonesia and Indonesian Election Laws Major Indonesian rules come in different forms and follow a certain hierarchy as defined by Act No. 12 of 2011 (amended several times most recently with Act No. 13 of 2022). The power of each types of rules is in accordance with the hierarchy, and sitting at the top of the hierarchy is the Indonesian Constitution. While there exists other forms of rules beyond the ones in the hierarchy, such rules only have the force of binding if it is ordered by higher rules or established by an authority granted by other rules. One type of major rules is Acts and one type of other rules is General Elections Commission Rules (Peraturan KPU).
Since 2017, elections for public offices in Indonesia are regulated by two separate Acts, both of which are continuously amended: Act No. 7 of 2017 (amended with Government Regulation in-lieu-of Act No. 1 of 2022, as ratified by Act No. 7 of 2023), known as General Election Law, for the presidential and legislative elections (DPR, DPD, and DPRD); and Act No. 1 of 2015 (amended with Act No. 10 of 2016), known as Local Election Law, for the regional heads (governors, mayors, and regents). Further provisions to implement the Acts are governed through various forms of rules, notably through General Election Commission Rules.
One way to amend rules in Indonesia is through a Supreme Court or Constitutional Court ruling. The Constitutional Court has the authority to test whether an Act violates the Indonesian Constitution, while the authority to test whether any forms of rules under Acts violate certain Acts is granted to the Supreme Court.
October 2023 Constitutional Court ruling On 16 October 2023, in response to the case number 90/PUU-XXI/2023 filed by a student and a self-acclaimed fan of Gibran Rakabuming Raka (President Joko Widodo's son) named Almas Tsaqibbirru, the Constitutional Court amended the General Election Law (Act No. 7 of 2017) to allow people under the minimum age of 40 years old to stand for the presidency or vice-presidency as long as they are currently or have previously held a public office that is elected through elections, including regional head elections. This allowed the 36-year-old Gibran, who at the time was the Mayor of Surakarta, to take part in the 2024 presidential election as a vice presidential candidate just 3 days before the registration period started. The ruling attracted criticism because the then Chief Justice Anwar Usman is President Widodo's brother-in-law and Gibran's uncle.
In November 2023, The Constitutional Court Ethics Council (MKMK) ruled that Anwar Usman had committed serious ethical violations during his handling of the October 2023 case. Due to his actions, the court ordered his removal from the Chief Justice position. However, the court rejected the request to carry out an assessment on, cancel, correct, or review the controversial ruling.
Gibran himself later became the running-mate of Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto and together they won the 2024 election becoming the president and vice president-elect.
May 2024 Supreme Court ruling On 29 May 2024, responding to the petition number 23 P/HUM/2024 from the Garuda Party, the Supreme Court decided to amend Article 4 Section 1 of the General Elections Commission Rules (PKPU) No. 9 of 2020 on the Nominations for the Election of Governor and Deputy Governor, Regent and Deputy Regent and/or Mayor and Deputy mayor. The court stated that the provision is not in accordance with the Local Election Law (Act No. 1 of 2015) as revised by Act No. 10 of 2016, and changed the age requirement for governor and vice governor candidates from 30 years old calculated during the determination of the candidate pair to 30 years old calculated during the inauguration. This ruling once again benefitted President Widodo's son, this time Kaesang Pangarep. Before the ruling, Kaesang was unqualified for the governorship or vice-governorship as he would still be 29 years old on 22 September, the candidate pair determination date, and will only turn 30 on 25 December. Thus, moving the calculation to the inauguration date will allow him to reach 30 before the calculation date and make him qualified for the registration.
August 2024 Constitutional Court rulings and the Local election law revision controversy
On 20 August 2024, the Constitutional Court read their decisions on several cases, two of which are cases number 60/PUU-XXII/2024 and 70/PUU-XXII/2024.
The Constitutional Court's position is the ultimate arbiter of a regulation's conflict with the Basic Law. The House of Representatives (DPR) refused to implement the Constitutional Court's decision by stipulating that the age limit for regional head candidates would only take effect after the inauguration of the 2024 election winners, in accordance with the May 2024 Supreme Court's decision on case No. 23 P/HUM/2024. This interpretation contradicts the Constitutional Court's decision on case No. 70/PUU-XXII/2024, which stipulates that the age limit for regional head candidates takes effect at the time of determining the candidates.
The House of Representatives also only partially followed the Constitutional Court's decision on case number 60/PUU-XXII/2024 regarding the removal of the party seat requirement in the Regional House of Representatives to nominate regional head candidates. The drafted Rancangan Undang-Undang (RUU) PIlkada (Regional Head Election Bill) only applies the removal to parties that did not have seats. On the other hand, the DPR immediately approved when General Elections Commission implemented the October 2023 Constitutional Court's decision on case number 90/PUU-XXI/2023 into KPU regulations related to relaxing the age requirements in the 2024 Indonesian presidential election.
This action was then formulated into the Regional Head Election Bill in a relatively short period of time. The proposal is widely considered to only benefit certain candidates who are related to the Widodo family, perceived as the shift of Indonesian democracy into a state of "monarchy" and nepotism. The buzz around this topic caused the hashtag #KawalPutusanMK and Indonesia Emergency Alert to emerge as one of the trending topics on social media X.
Party reactions Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) was the only faction to openly oppose this move by the Badan Legislasi (Baleg) of DPR (Legislation Committee of the House of Representatives). PDI-P has attempted to stop the bill by rejecting its proposal during the Legislation Committee meeting and being absent for the plenary meeting so that the meeting did not meet the quorum. The meeting to pass the Regional Head Election Bill would then be postponed, and ultimately cancelled.
Meanwhile, National Awakening Party (PKB) exhibited ambiguity regarding the Regional Head Election Bill. This was evident from a statement by Muhaimin Iskandar, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who claimed to be unaware of the agenda for drafting the bill. Additionally, Luqman Hakim from the PKB faction did not attend the plenary session. However, despite these mixed signals, the PKB faction, in general, supported the bill.
Gelora Party has also taken an ambiguous stance on this issue. Although initially favorable towards the bill, the party's position became uncertain after Fahri Hamzah, a prominent party figure, expressed his disappointment with the Constitutional Court's decision, which he believed went against the party's demands. Gelora Party considered suing the Constitutional Court, aiming to secure the right for parties without seats in the House of Representatives to nominate their own regional leaders.
Kaesang and Erina's lifestyle Although not directly related, Kaesang Pangarep and his wife, Erina Gudono, drew condemnation from Indonesian netizens because of their luxury travels at the time when the demonstrations occurred. Kaesang and his wife allegedly took the luxury private jet Gulfstream G650 from Jakarta to Los Angeles for holiday before taking Erina to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for her Master's studies. An investigation by The Straits Times revealed that the plane was formerly delivered to Singaporean based company, Garena, on 15 July 2021, before it was bought by the Bank of Utah’s trust on 29 December 2022. Garena's parent company, SEA Ltd did not comment by request for more information. Garena was one of the main sponsors to the Persis Solo football club, which is co-owned by Kaesang Pangarep.
Erina also shared Instagram stories of her luxury travels in the United States, which included the purchase of a lobster roll that cost an estimated and a baby stroller costing . These raised the ire of netizens, leading to Erina being compared with Marie Antoinette. With many netizens requoting the words of "let them eat cake!" attributed to her and comparing the lobster roll that Kaesang gave to his wife with the salary of some honorary teachers, which is equivalent to or less than . Indonesian netizens proceeded to send mass emails to the University of Pennsylvania, imploring them to revoke Erina's partial scholarship. Indonesian netizens were then quick to find out where the two were staying in the United States after another two portraits taken by Erina were found to closely match the interiors of the Four Seasons Hotel at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and the Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles before heading to "Philly." With the cheapest room at Mandalay Bay costing per night and at Beverly Wilshire around per night, Suara estimated that just the amount spent on one night at Beverly Wilshire could have been enough to pay the salaries of at least 40 honorary teachers in Indonesia. Erina herself was once considered as a candidate to be the Regent of Sleman.
A video surfaced showing Kaesang and Erina disembarking from a private jet in Surakarta, confirmed the type of aircraft they were using being a Gulfstream G650. The footage also captured the group moving a large number of shopping items from the United States and loading them into a Toyota Alphard that had been parked on the apron. The video sparked outrage among netizens, who were angered by the fact that the items seemed to bypass inspection, immigration, and customs procedures. Nirwala Dwi Heriyanto, the Director of Communication and User Guidance of Customs Services at the Directorate General of Customs and Excise (Bea Cukai), stated that all items must undergo customs checks, with no exemptions for private planes except on domestic flights. He also mentioned that an investigation into the matter was underway. In response to the criticisms from netizens regarding the flight, Silfester Matutina, Deputy General Manager of the Prabowo-Gibran National Campaign Team, defended Kaesang's use of the private jet by stating that "Many people also use private jets."
Indonesian emergency warning