The state and Human Rights under Joko Widodo’s Indonesia

Abstract

In recent years, studies and surveys conducted by Human Rights organisations and think-tanks have confirmed that the civic space in Indonesia is shrinking. In spite of being elected as President by running a campaign focusing on modern technocracy, socio-economic progress, and an ideological platform of pluralism, Joko Widodo’s administration eventually came to embrace a more autocratic form of government. In this paper, we propose that such illiberalism or autocracy can be understood by the expansion of “permanent threats” that substantially increase the likelihood of control and repression for political oppositions and critics of the government alike. This paper primarily uses a qualitative approach to examine the condition of enforcement and protection of Human Rights under Joko Widodo’s regime in both online and offline spaces. To supplement our literature study, we also conducted two separate surveys amongst Indonesian CSO leaders in 2020 and 2021 to measure the gravity of risk they are facing. The research shows that Joko Widodo’s administration is marked by several discursive and legal-political changes that have proven effective in silencing political opposition and critics of the government alike. Ultimately, these changes have led to a pattern of reliance for censorship, intimidation, and sometimes outright repression that severely contributed to the erosion of Indonesia’s civic space.