Oligarchy

I have never told the story below to the public, namely my one-on-one meeting with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in early August 2021.

The meeting was at the invitation of the President after I made sharp criticisms, both on Twitter and in other media. It lasted for almost an hour and a half in his office at the Bogor Palace, West Java.

This face-to-face meeting was not at my request, but entirely at the initiative of the President, who may have wondered why I, as a supporter of the President, had recently become critical of several policies and the performance of the President in his second term of office.

Even though I was not part of the official campaign team, I was the one who made the leaflets "Ten Reasons Why I Chose President Jokowi", both in the first election (2014) and the second period (2019). The leaflets were used by the campaign team and distributed.

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This, in my opinion, is one of the strengths of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. We must admit that our President is willing to invite and listen to strong criticism from his people, either for input or to provide his version of the argument.

What is certain is that the meeting was not designed for cosmetic purposes at all, because no one from the media was invited to witness it and after all this time there was not a single item of news about it. Second, I am nobody. I am not any figure, not an academic, not influential and not a political or business figure.

I am sure that the aim of the meeting was only to soften my attitude so that I would not launch harsh criticisms publicly after receiving a direct explanation from the President. However, I am very humbled to say that the President's response to my various criticisms could not completely convince me.

KPK Law

My meeting and conversation with the President was not the first time, but it was the first one-on-one meeting at that time. Previously, I joined a group of approximately 20 prominent intellectuals and social activists at the Merdeka Palace, Central Jakarta, to discuss and protest the enactment of the new Law on the Corruption Eradication Commission (UU KPK).

There were three conclusions from the meeting, namely that the law must be revised by the House of Representatives or submitted to the Constitutional Court (for judicial review) or the President to issue a government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu).

As a result, the Constitutional Court, as we know, rejected the demand to annul the new KPK Law. Thus, our only hope is not for a revision by the House, but for a Perppu to annul this law. This is what I asked the President. He replied, "There is no point in me issuing a Perppu because even if I issue it, it will return to the House, and the majority of House members will reject those who want the new KPK Law.”

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I replied, “Not necessarily, Mr. President, because the political parties also have calculators. They also take into account what the President's response would be if they refused the President's request. However, if it were true that the Perppu issued by the President would be rejected by the House, then the President could return to the people and convey that the Perppu had been rejected by the political parties of the House so that the President's name would remain good and the people could find out who was the culprit.”

We talked about many things, but at one point I mentioned the word oligarchy and the President asked, "What is oligarchy?" I am not sure the President does not understand the meaning of the word oligarchy. It could be just to test me. My answer was not long. I said, “Those who have power and control the House are none other than the leaders of the big parties. What is meant by oligarchy is actually much more complicated and deeper than that.”

Power of oligarchy

As we know, the weakness of law enforcement in the Jokowi era and the selection of ministers and so on were once rumored to be not the real will of the President, but there were forces behind the formal power that helped determine the direction of state policy.

These forces consist of very influential "strong" people who can disrupt the goals that the country would achieve if their wishes were not followed. These people can consist of those who have great economic/financial power or other powers that determine the country's political direction.

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. This happens not only in our country, but also in almost all other countries, countries with both democratic and authoritarian systems. Oligarchy even plays a part in determining the fate and geopolitics of the world.

We also often hear that about the United States government, which, despite being led alternately by presidents from the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, yet in fact, its policies have not changed in many respects and are almost the same. It is stated that all of this is caused by the existence of what is known as a “deep state” that controls the country.

This includes the military-industrial complex, which benefits greatly from the US security industry with the highest budget in the world, large corporations on Wall Street with economic interests and the very powerful Israel lobby in the US (AIPAC), all of which are involved in determining who is elected to the US Congress or Senate with contributions that are not limited by law.

It is also the big media whose life comes from big corporate advertisements, which do not dare to report or convey headlines and opinions contrary to the interests of these corporations.

As a result of the influence of "powerful people" in the US, since 1970 real wages (workers' wages, after taking into account the effects of inflation) have continued to decline until now. Economic growth is only enjoyed by a small 10-percent group of people with money at the top level.

The eroding middle class is getting thinner and the income gap between rich and poor is widening.

Under the pretext of wanting to achieve high economic growth, taxes for the upper income bracket, who are rich, are continuously being reduced, while the government's source of income is precisely from taxes on the marginalized lower group.

Face of oligarchy

In his new book Who Rules the World, Noam Chomsky says that the world is not free from oligarchic control. It is just that this oligarchy does not consist of people, but countries that are economically and militarily strong.

So far, mainly the US. However, the unipolar system imposed by the US and friends after World War II has recently been weakened by the growth of new powers in countries that have challenged it.

Even though the geopolitical oligarchy is carried out by the state, as mentioned above, behind these countries there are still corporate powers that control it, including in its foreign policy.

Is our country also controlled by an oligarchy? If the answer is yes, who are they?

Oligarchy is not a monopoly of states with a democratic system. Russia for hundreds of years until now when it was led by Putin was said to always have a small group of oligarchs, rich people who are very influential. In China, even with a one-party system, the oligarchs are around and within the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.

In Iran, the oligarchy is in the hands of religious groups, namely certain ulama who are around the Supreme Leader, whose power is higher than the president and parliament.

Is our country also controlled by an oligarchy? If the answer is yes, who are they? The more expensive the election costs and the cost to be elected, the greater the dependence on people with money.

Our only hope, if there really is an oligarchy in our country, is that the elected leader in the upcoming presidential elections will be someone who dares to fight or at least is able to tame the oligarchs, who only want to maintain and even increase their own interests.

Abdillah Toha, Political, economic and religious observer

This article was translated by Kurniawan Siswo.