Erosion ofd democracy happens because there is on-going deterioration of democracy during Jokowi administration, and this continues. Yesterday constitutes the limit of people’s patience. This is the introduction to the talkshow by Konde.co at X Platform on 4/9/2034.

The talkshow invites Bivitri Susanti, a legal academic, who says that good influencer goes to the street, during the 21 August protest "This is time to say your are wrong and you cannot do this," says Bivitri citing the influencer.

So what are the symptoms of an erosion of democracy? Government projects or Strategic National Proyects do not bring profit to Indonesia as they only bring profit to a small groups I.e. nickel mining, coal mining, and palm oil companies. Erosion of democracy is marked by threats to civil societies. Afetr major protest on 21 August, there was an attack on the Indonesian Corruption Watch and Perludem websites. The Law Enforcement Agencies should have proitected civilians’ rights, yet as happen in many areas including Makassar and Semarang, they beat protesters and spray them with tear gas. Then they use repression in campuses, by imposing suspension on students who participated in the protest.

The situation in Yogyakarta is different, because there are lecturers who permit students to take a break from lecture and join protests. For Bivitri, this is a blessing - meaning that the lesson so far has been integrated.

Back to the issue of the erosion of democracy, it happens in all sectors now, structurally, in education system and in misuse of power in election .
Autocratic legalism says that the rights and main law is there to fulfil autocratic objective to increase power of certain groups by killing democracy by using legal agencies.
"Maybe in ten years, people not in our cyrcle are amazed , because it is couched in legal language, and then narrated as such, and accepted as true," says Bivitri.
In line with what the host says that maybe five-to-ten-years ago we still believed that the government did nothing wrong compared to the last regime. But once we entered the last presidential election, we realised that we are being played.

So that is the situation that leads to the emergence of this "urgent situation" and the triggers is definitely the monitoring of law on local election.

Women Representation in Local Election
Then about women representation in local politics and election, can we say that the women situation is urgent? What situation are women in during the Jokowi administration?

Bivitri answers that women representation is only symbolic (numbers) without delving into the more substantive issue?
In the erosion of democracy, women are affected, because when pro-democracy groups talk about women, people do not pay attention, and people do not consider their issue as their issue. Hence women are only looked at symbolically.

There is a good example - Criminal Law against Sexual Violence - a joint work that takes more than ten years to complete.This showcases a very good collaboration which is different from other laws.

To date, activists continue advocating for the draft Law on Domestic Worker Protection. There are other women issues regarding day-to-day policy - for example Hajj pilgrimage policy, whether the elderly citizens’ needs are met. There are also gender mainstreaming issue and women in local election.

In East Java, there are three women candidates in provincial governor election, but not in other provinces. We can see that they have three times more capacity than their male counterparts. They work harder than their male counterparts.There must be women representation in every policy - meaning there must be women in every issue. But exclusivity is the name of the game now, and women are marginalised and only being ‘mixed.’ Women issue is considered specific issue relevant only to the domestic domain and to numbers in electoral votes, says Bivitri.

Yet, for Bivitri, women issue is inter-sexual, as other issues. But they isolate it, as many people in the parliament do not see that it is an inter-sexual issue.
Bivitri adds that women issue in politics is illustrated as stereotypical. There are more women in Parliament, there are more women politicians, but they do not understand gender issues. Women are there just to fill the quote, and they are increasing in number. But there are few women champion during debates. “People like Luluk, Diah Pitaloka, for example. There are women who may be able to talk about gender - in other words, we can assume that all women in parliament know their substantive roles . The world of politics is like a "boys-club". How they discuss is sexist. How they relate in social media, for example, is also sexist by showcasing stickers of sexist women," adds Bivitri.

Host talksho and editor of Konde.co, Salsabila Putri Pertiwi adds that there are many officials who issue sexist and mysoginic statements in the public domain - that only see women and other entities as statistical number and not as citizens that they need to represent.

Bivitri asnwered that this was the effect of education in Indonesia which structurally did not teach about gender equality and sexual education. Indonesia is happy that it had a women president and a women speaker of parliament. But the substance is missing - do women in parliament building understand the critical need for domestic worker law?

Brutality by Law Enforcement Agency and Limiting Actions

Salsabila told how she joined the ‘Reform being Corrupted’ Protest in the past. There was eviction in Bandung and violence by law enforcement agency and the use of tear gas too.
Then, when there was violence again during ‘urgent situation’ to monitor the decision by the Constitutional Court, and that violence formed a pattern of government overreach. The question then is should we be critically aware of the urgent situation, and how urgent it should be? How urgent should it be when there is union busting, when there is strict limitation and criminalisation of journalists, and when there are limitations imposed in the Electronic and Information technology Law.
Bivitri answered that in fact the perpetrators are not just the State agencies but also corporations. For example, ten CNN Indonesia workers were fired and they knew that the owner of the company belomngs to a political party and part of the powerful people in the government.
So what is urgency there, when the political world is filled with a jungle of politics, with clashes between politics and oligarchy. There are those who pursue political rents to profit from it. They become the middlepeople and earn money but instill high political cost in Indonesia. It is a public secret that in local election, anyone may promote themselves by donating to political parties. Hence, ;politics become a means to earn an income.
"But we cannot stand far from politics, because everyday when we leave our home, we are confronted with air pollution , that is also politics. Whatever we are confronted with on a daily basis is essentially politics. And the fact is that politics is used as a way to earn money for some people. Can anybody earn an income without taking away community’s rights? We learn a lot in many ways in the last few weeks and the urgent situation remains," says Bivitri.

Now Despite Protest in Small-Scale, It Is Nonetheless A Beginning
Bivitri said that criticism from community must continue just like people with open mind like yesterday (21 August) that actiually discussed the protest by consolidation at X Space involving 28 thousand people.
"Criticism may be through writing, theatre, resistence through arts exhibition for example by Agus Noor. These in fact continued and should not be undermined. What students did was not finished, but must continue. Do not be afraid of assumption.
"Fighting is damaging". What ia true is that fighting means ensuring that the authority becomes open to criticism. There is supply and demand. And we must make it that every citizen is critical, but not necessarily by staging protests. Nepotism should not continue. There should be active citizens, demanding their rights. That is what we want to instill ," says Bivitri. (Ast)