The All Mighty and Powerful DPR

February 19, 2025 | 08:08 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The House of Representatives' procedural regulations give it the authority to evaluate public officials. This is a sign of a move towards competitive authoritarianism.

THE revision to House of Representatives (DPR) Regulation No. 1/2020 on Code of Conduct is a brutal way for the body to increase its authority. With these extensive powers, the DPR has the potential to damage the Constitution because it takes away authority from the executive branch by placing state institutions under its control.

A plenary session of the DPR approved the code of conduct regulation on February 4. It includes an additional article, number 228A, which gives the DPR the authority to regularly evaluate public officials appointed in plenary sessions. The DPR can even ask other state institutions to dismiss these officials.

There are considerable ramifications from this regulation. The DPR could evaluate all officials selected by the DPR, such as the Bank Indonesia Governor, the leadership of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), members of the KPK Supervisory Council, Constitutional Court justices, Supreme Court justices, the Chief of the National Police and the Commander of the Indonesian Military.

This regulation goes too far. The DPR procedures should only regulate the internal mechanisms of the House, such as the election of the speaker. This change makes it appear that the house can regulate other institutions, despite the fact that every institution has its own mechanism for evaluating its officials.

The authority of the DPR to select public officials is a common mechanism that applies in many democracies. But this power does not mean that the DPR gives these selected officials a mandate. And these officials are not accountable to the DPR. They are bound by the mechanisms of their respective institutions.

This new authority looks like an effort by the DPR to take control over public officials. In 2022, the DPR faced strong condemnation when it dismissed constitutional justice Aswanto without any satisfactory legal basis for doing so. Now the DPR feels that it has a legal basis and can do the same thing to other officials.

This new power of the DPR is believed to be connected to the interests of President Prabowo Subianto, who wants to control public officials through the DPR. At present, a number of officials in the state institutions who were selected by the previous administration are no longer in line with the current regime.

With this significant authority, the government does not need to wait for an official’s term to expire before replacing him or her. All it needs to do is ask for the assistance of the DPR, which can easily tinker with the positions of public officials. Those that the government likes will be retained, and those it is at odds with will be sidelined. This is dangerous and damages democracy.

This is a sign that Indonesia is in the process of moving toward competitive authoritarianism. Democracy seems to be in good shape because the institutions continue with their functions. There are still opposition voices in the legislature, but the institution is slowly weakened and controlled indirectly by the government.

In the next stage, the regime will try to control the judicial branch. Not by abolishing it as is done by dictators, but by putting gentle pressure on it by, for example, replacing judges whose wishes are not in line with those of the government or bribing them.

In this kind of system, the media will not be fully controlled by the authoritarian regime. Rather, critical media will be allowed to operate, but the regime will try to subtly influence it by controlling it through advertising funding.

The signs that Indonesia is heading for a competitive authoritarianism are staring us in the face. Supporters of democracy need to keep a careful eye on this type of regime. Its subtle moves are not easily apparent, but the impact is clear: democracy is increasingly damaged and the government is increasingly dominant.

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