Jokowi’s Clean Hands Face BEM UI and Fresh Wind of Criticism

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) responded to the criticism of The King of Lip Service aka King Boast which was made by the University of Indonesia Student Executive Board (BEM UI).

In a 2 minute 1 second video uploaded by the Presidential Secretariat on Youtube, Jokowi smilingly said that this criticism is commonplace in a democratic country. He even had time to say that previously he had often received nicknames from various parties, such as authoritarian to father bipang.

“It’s been a long time, huh. There used to be someone who said I was klemar-klemer, someone said it was me too plonga-plongo, then changed again, someone said I was authoritarian, then someone said I was a lame duck, and recently someone said I was Bipang, and finally someone said about The King of Lip Service. Yes, I think this is a form of student expression and this is a democratic country, so criticism is okay,” said Jokowi, Tuesday (29/6).

Jokowi said universities need not prevent students from expressing themselves. In the next sentence he said, “but also remember that we have a culture of manners, we have a culture of politeness”.

Students, he said, were probably learning to express their opinions. However, the former Mayor of Solo reminded that the important thing that needs to be considered at this time is the work to deal with Covid-19.

Political observer from Paramadina University, Arif Susanto, considered the response to be Jokowi’s signature response, in which he always kept his ‘hands clean’ and issued ambiguous statements that were open to interpretation.

“Campuses can’t prevent students from expressing themselves, yes, but in reality it has happened and it is impossible for a reactionary situation to occur without a cause. We can also look at other problems, right,” said Arif when contacted by telephone, Tuesday ( 29/6) night.

Arif also mentioned the National Insight Test (TWK) for employees of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which according to Jokowi cannot be used as a basis for laying off 75 employees. However, in the end, 51 employees who did not pass the TWK were decided could no longer join the KPK.

The same is the case with the critical polemic of BEM UI. According to Arif, in this case the party to blame is the UI rectorate. In fact, he suspects that there is a direct or indirect political influence in it.

“With a communication strategy that plays on ambiguous statements, Jokowi’s hands are clean. If we want to see, who is at fault here, the rectorate. In fact, it is almost certain that the rectorate’s actions were not without a political background. The rector is the president. His authority is in the hands of the president now,” said Arif.

“This will create political consequences from the actions of a rector. It can be stronger than the consequences for the world of education,” he continued.

He assessed that Jokowi’s response did not answer the substance of the problems that were criticized by BEM UI, such as the revision of the Electronic Information and Transaction Law (UU ITE) to strengthening the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

“Instead of talking about the substance of the protest, at least that’s what it is, but the essence of the protest is now being marginalized. The point is, nowadays students certainly have the freedom to protest, but the protest is proper or not, deserved or not. Now that’s the issue “The substance has become a peripheral issue. This is exactly Jokowi’s style,” he added.

Arif believes that there are at least three factors that make Jokowi seem comfortable even though he has been criticized by various parties. First, support for Jokowi at the elite level is solid. This is due to Jokowi’s ability to distribute power resources.

The second factor, there are parties that are willing to be bumper to keep Jokowi’s ‘hands’ clean.

“Starting from LBP [Luhut Binsar Panjaitan] until Ngabalin it works in quotes to clean the dirt. They are bulldozers who are ready to clean up the dirt so that the dirt doesn’t stick to Jokowi. It doesn’t matter if Ngabalin is bad, LBP is considered bad, but Jokowi is untouchables because of that,” he said.

Finally, another thing that makes Jokowi look comfortable is the polarized position of society. He said that this polarization took the form of an unchanged from the last election.

“Jokowi may not use much… so if Jokowi drool that, ‘Oh no, I’m not authoritarian’. Explicitly, yes. Because right, yes, there are 1-2 cases of imprisonment, but no murder of activists and the like. There’s none. If the newspaper is closed, the media will not be threatened. Explicitly,” said Arif.

“But implicitly, we can feel the threat to freedom. Starting from the hacking of activists, it happened. But, on the other hand, it is difficult for us to say who the perpetrators are. Or something else, for example the media. The ITE Law also makes journalistic work more limited,” he continued.