Just as most Indonesians believe they had entered a new, better era after electing Joko Widodo as their president, they will wake up one of these days realizing they are living under an autocratic regime.
It is not that Joko suddenly turned into an authoritarian president. Rather, it is because he will have been removed from office by a number of politicians, and replaced by, who else but Prabowo Subianto himself.
As surreal as it sounds, this is not a joke. This is a very real possibility. As we question the sanity of the argument, Prabowo's Merah Putih coalition has executed their master plan with brutal effectiveness to lay the groundwork to achieve such a goal.
First, they have succeeded in passing the local election law, which gives local legislatures the authority to pick governors, mayors and district chiefs across Indonesia, instead of the people. As they control legislative bodies in 31 of 34 provinces, they can install their own governors in these provinces.
Should this be the case, Joko's policies could face a blockade from regional leaders, making his leadership ineffective and prone to public disappointment, with the end game being impeachment.
To prepare for the possibility of impeachment, the Merah Putih coalition made the first move by passing the controversial Law on Legislative Bodies, also known as the MD3 law. Joko's judicial review application against the MD3 law was rejected.
Controlling both bodies means they can change laws and the Constitution at will, even scrapping the direct presidential election system. This could make the People's Consultative Assembly, or MPR, the body that elects the country's president, turning the country back to a New Order era type of iron-fist regime.
Unless we fight this master plan, this nightmare scenario will happen. You have been warned.