Netray Monitoring: After Constitutional Court's Decision, Anwar Usman Was Criticized By Netizens And Asked To Resign

Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Anwar Usman chaired the hearing of the petition for judicial review of Article 169 letter q of Law (UU) Number 7 of 2017 concerning Elections, Monday (16/10/2023). (Antara/Akbar Nugroho Gumay/tom/am)

JAKARTA – Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (MK) Anwar Usman became the target of netizens after granting the lawsuit regarding the age limit for presidential candidates and vice presidential candidates in the Election Law. Anwar Usman is considered to have played a role in shaping the politics of President Joko Widodo's dynasty.

The Constitutional Court received dozens of complaints about the age limit for presidential and vice presidential candidates filed by a number of parties, ranging from political parties such as the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) to students. Among the 11 lawsuits, the Constitutional Court judges approved some of the requests and rejected others.

Chairman of the Constitutional Court, Anwar Usman at his wedding reception with Idayati, who is President Joko Widodo's sister, on May 26 2022. (Special)

The application that was approved came from a student named Almas Tsaqibbirru who asked the Constitutional Court to change the minimum age limit for presidential and vice presidential candidates to 40 years or have experience as a regional head.

This decision immediately caused controversy and heated up the world of domestic politics and justice. The reason is, through this new regulation, Jokowi's eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, was finally appointed as Prabowo Subianto's vice presidential candidate from the Advanced Indonesia Coalition.

Criticized by Netizens

To find out netizens' reactions to the Constitutional Court's decision, especially Anwar Usman as chairman, Netray carried out monitoring via the X platform using the keyword anwar&&usman. During the period 16-22 September 2023 there were 4,202 uploads from 2,353 accounts discussing this topic.

However, as expected, negative sentiment dominates this discussion. This is proven by the 2,811 negative sentiment uploads, far surpassing the positive sentiment which only amounted to 64 uploads.

Criticism of Anwar Usman dominates netizens' posts with negative sentiment. Especially regarding the fact that Anwar is Jokowi's brother-in-law. Or in other words, Anwar is Gibran's uncle, who eventually became vice presidential candidate for the Advanced Indonesia Coalition (KIM). Not only Anwar, Jokowi's name also dominates the conversation.

Jokowi's name can be seen from the upload of the @hc_poirot account, which assesses the president as the cause of the MK judges being divided. Meanwhile, the @_AnakKolong account expressed its opinion that Anwar's relationship as Jokowi's brother-in-law interfered with his independence as a Constitutional Court judge.

Vice presidential candidate Gibran Rakabuming Raka greets his supporters after registering as a participant in the 2024 Presidential Election (Pilpres) at the KPU Building, Jakarta, Wednesday (25/10/2023). (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja/tom/aa)

Not just blasphemy, many netizens have also called for Anwar to resign. This can be seen from the "retreat" that stands out among the words often used by netizens. For example, from the @NenkMonica account which firmly asked Anwar Usman to immediately leave his position as Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court in order to maintain the neutrality and fairness of this institution.

Apart from that, netizens are still busy discussing dynastic politics. One angry account branded Anwar Usman as a traitorous judge who supported dynastic politics by helping launch Gibran as vice presidential candidate.

Dynastic politics has indeed become a topic of public discussion, especially in the last two weeks or after the Constitutional Court's decision. Political Observer and Director of Indonesia Political Opinion (IPO) Dedi Kurnia Syah Putra said that the Constitutional Court's decision had too much political overtones. He suspects that this decision also tends to defend only one person.

"The Constitutional Court's decisions increasingly have political overtones and tend to defend one person only for the 2024 context, namely Gibran Raka. The Constitutional Court does not want to be seen as vulgarly siding with the interests of the Jokowi family, but the substance of the decision clearly deceives several of the plaintiffs, including the public, because of the fact that they are under 40 years old. "Even though we can take part in the contest, this decision is worse than granting the age limit lawsuit," said Dedi to VOI.

"If the lawsuit (age limit) is granted, then the right to contest belongs to all citizens without exception, with the current Constitutional Court decision it is only intended for those already in power. "The Constitutional Court seems to be fooling the public," added Dedi.

Online News Media Monitoring

Not only on social media, news related to Anwar Usman is also busy in online mass media. Netray monitoring with the same keywords and period found 1,312 articles from 166 media publishing on this topic.

From the graph, it can be seen that news with a negative sentiment dominates. As many as 697 articles had negative sentiments, while only 310 articles had positive sentiments.

Articles with negative sentiment contain responses from various parties who believe that the Constitutional Court's decision has violated Indonesian law. One of the politicians who criticized the MK's decision was Amien Rais, who called the MK a treacherous assembly.

However, on the other hand, quite a few also responded positively to the Constitutional Court's decision. One of them is the National Democratic Party which considers this a bonus for young people in Indonesia to take part in contesting and being involved in government management.

Twitter conversation statistics on the topic of the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Anwar Usman. (Netray)

On the other hand, Political Expert from Al Azhar University Indonesia Andriadi Achmad said there was nothing wrong with the Constitutional Court's decision, if the moment was not made in the atmosphere leading up to the 2024 presidential election.

However, because the moment was deemed inappropriate, the Constitutional Court's decision is considered to further strengthen public suspicions that this was created as an opening for Gibran to run in the presidential election contest.

"Actually, the Constitutional Court's decision would not be a problem if it did not occur during the presidential election season. "In this way, it further strengthens people's suspicions that this decision was made to accommodate Gibran," said Andriadi to VOI.