Politization Bansos Forms Of Authoritarian Political Construction

President Jokowi distributed social assistance in Tarakan. Photo: Doc Setkab.

JAKARTA Providing social assistance (bansos) ahead of the 2024 General Election is considered a political tool for President Joko Widodo's administration. This is because the social assistance budget which reaches IDR 500 trillion or the largest during reform is said to be not supported by poverty data which has decreased, although not significantly.

Professor of Paramadina University, Didin S Damanhuri revealed, if social assistance was disbursed with a very large budget, it would indicate that the poverty rate in Indonesia would increase again. In fact, the current poverty rate has decreased somewhat.

"This is a sign that social assistance has become a political tool. Moreover, it is now being distributed ahead of the 2024 presidential election, and is often shared directly by the president," he said, Thursday, February 8.

"Even though the power of the budget holder, in this case the Minister of Social Affairs, is not in a state of absence or illness. It does not even accompany Jokowi when social assistance is distributed. It strengthens the process of politicizing social assistance for the benefit of the presidential election," he continued.

According to Didin, from a review of the political economy over the past five years, there are symptoms of Indonesia entering the neo-orientitarianism phase. In fact, some parties have confirmed these symptoms with very strong evidence.

Since 2014 President Jokowi appeared with real and populist programs. But entering the second period in 2019, Jokowi entered the processes called Neo Oritarian. The indication is that the parliament, which was originally pro-power, was 65 to 85 percent," he said.

As a result, there was a buildup of the check and balance mechanism in parliament in controlling the legislative process and others, so that there were eight laws that were suspected of not taking sides with the interests of the people, such as the KPK Law, the Minerba Law, the Ciptaker Law, the Health Law and others.

"So, the provision of social assistance as one of the instruments to win politics is part of the form of authoritarian political construction," said Didin.