5 Exciting Political Events In 2019

Minister of Defense Prabowo Subianto (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - 2019 is a political year for Indonesia. Apart from being enlivened by matters of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections, several government policies this year are also interesting to discuss. So what are the political events that have invited pros and cons throughout this year?

The first is the question of Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto, who is the challenger to incumbent President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) in the 2019 Presidential Election, close to Jokowi's cabinet. This made many people surprised, because Prabowo was Jokowi's rival, in the 2019 and 2014 elections.

In Jokowi's cabinet, Prabowo became Minister of Defense. Prabowo supporters consider this move to be considered a knight and consider the unity of the nation as more important than division.

Secondly, political events that become public discussion are about the revision of the KPK Law or amendments to Law Number 30 of 2002 concerning the Corruption Eradication Commission.

Many think that the revision of the KPK Law will weaken the KPK and must be rejected. This weakness is related to the emergence of the Supervisory Board which is considered to have made the anti-racial institution not independent. As well, the policy of procedures for wiretapping, search or confiscation permits which is considered to have weakened the KPK.

A mass action emerged to reject this. The action happened several times. They called this action #ReformasiDiKorupsi.

The action which took place in a number of cities in Jakarta resulted in the death of two victims. They are students from the University of Halu Oleo, Randi (21 / Faculty of Fisheries and Marine) and Yusuf Kardawi (19 / Faculty of Engineering).

Fourth, is the relocation of the capital city of Indonesia to Kalimantan, in Penajam Paser Utara and Kutai Kartanegara. The news was announced by President Joko Widodo in August.

Jokowi argued that the relocation of the capital was carried out as an effort to equalize it because so far economic activity was still centered on the island of Java. This makes Java Island very crowded and creates inequality with other islands. With the relocation of the capital city, he hopes to encourage the growth of new economic centers outside Java.

Then finally, a political incident that is quite interesting is the shadow of the political dynasty from President Jokowi's family.

This issue arose when his eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming, registered as a PDIP cadre and was determined to become a candidate for Mayor of Solo in the 2020 Pilkada and Jokowi's son-in-law, Bobby Nasution, who advanced in the 2020 Medan City Pilkada.