JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Indonesia has been classed as “partly free” in this year’s edition of ‘Freedom in the World‘, an annual global report on political rights and civil liberties by American non-governmental organisation Freedom House since 1973.
Its ranking fell two points from last year, with a total score of 59 over 100 in 2021. Indonesia is, however, ranked above its neighbours Singapore and Malaysia, which scored a total of 48 and 51 respectively.
According to the Freedom in the World 2021 report, the archipelagic Southeast Asian nation scored 30 out of 40 points on political rights and 29 out of 60 points on civil liberties.
Despite the country’s progress in certain democratic rights, the report states that Indonesia is struggling to cope with major challenges such as systemic corruption, the escalating violence and tensions in West Papua, and the politicisation of blasphemy and defamation laws.
Globally, the report found that 91 out 210 countries have imposed stricter press controls related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and 72 countries have restricted freedom of speech and silenced governments’ critics.
In April, the Indonesian government issued a directive to police to combat alleged disinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic and criticism of the Government and President Joko Widodo’s response to it. Police had arrested 51 individuals under this policy by June. The report notes that other legislation and policies enacted after the outbreak of the pandemic were used to limit freedom of speech and silence dissent.
Indonesian lawmaker Fadli Zon took to his Twitter on 17 August saying that Indonesia’s democracy is on the decline as the country celebrates its 76th independence.
“On this Independence Day, we should be able to celebrate ‘freedom’ both freedom from and freedom for,” the politician from the Gerindra Party tweeted, adding that the president should not have been panic over the ‘404:Not Found‘ mural.
The aforementioned mural was once seen in the Kunciran-Soekarno-Hatta Airport tunnel Tangerang depicting a face resembling President Joko Widodo with closed eyes and a banner that says “404: Not Found“. The painting is no longer available now.
Fadli also highlighted the controversial Omnibus Law that triggered several protests in October last year, which gives the president wide powers to change numerous laws with a single draft.
The Omnibus Law amended 76 laws across a wide range of sectors and industries — including the laws on energy and mining, plantations, telecommunications, healthcare, tourism, land and buildings, and employment — which sparked protests as it has the potential to benefit investors at the expense of labours’ rights and the environment.
Citing data from the Statistics Agency (BPS), Fadli pointed out that even though Indonesia’s democracy index has shown improvement on aggregate, the scores of some vital variables — freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, free and fair general election, and roles of political parties — have plummeted.
Indonesia’s result in the Freedom In The World report came as no surprise as the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report on the democracy index last year gave Indonesia an overall score of 6.3 — the lowest in the last 14 years.
Indonesia’s rights groups have called for the repeal of the country’s Communication and Information Ministerial Regulation (Permekominfo) No.5/2020 on private digital service providers — a law that requires a wide range of such platforms operating in Indonesia such as Google, Twitter, and TikTok to register with the Government within a six-month grace period.
The ministerial regulation — which took effect on 24 May — is a derivative of Government Regulation No.71/2019 on electronic systems and transactions.
Lintang Setianti, a researcher at the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy, told TOC earlier on 6 June that the regulation oversimplifies the category of digital platforms, given that there are various types of digital platforms.
“Which platforms should be regulated? Do private digital platforms only include user-generated platforms? What about Netflix or Vidio, which curate content they receive based on their community guidelines? What about the government’s official websites? Should they register?
“What about those who make profits from their platforms? All these requirements for registration are burdensome to the people,” she opined.
Lintang added that regulations prioritising digital protection and transparency are more vital than state-centric procedures that can harm digital rights.
