Talking Indonesia

Digital Populism Just as we were recording this podcast, the hashtag #daruratdemokrasi (democratic emergency) went viral across Indonesian social media. The alert was prompted by the latest example of Indonesia’s parliament (DPR) attempting to override or block a ruling by the Constitutional Court related to the eligibility of candidates to run in regional elections. The online campaign quickly turned into calls for real action to take place on Thursday 22 August, in the form of protests at the national parliament in Jakarta and other cities across the country. This would be parliament’s final sitting day before it headed into recess ahead of the November elections, and therefore the last chance for any amendments to be passed. The response on the streets by some thousands of protesters, including celebrities, filmmakers, actors and academics, was significant enough to force the DPR to pause its intervention. This effectively put an end to what was seen by the protesters as an attempt to both prevent a key r