Vedro Imanuel Girsang, Jakarta – Research by a London-based institution, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), said that Indonesia's democracy scored 6.44 in 2024, placing the country in a "flawed democracy" category.
Indonesia's position notably dropped from 56 to 59, out of a total of 167 countries surveyed by the agency. In 2023, Indonesia scored 6.53, another drop from the previous year, with 6.71 score at the democracy index.
This marks three consecutive years that Indonesia has been listed in the "flawed democracy" category, showing the nation's lack of commitment to implement democratic principles.
The institution spoke of several components to base the review on the global state of democracy, including electoral processes and pluralism, government functioning, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties.
"In 2024, the largest declines were recorded in government functioning and electoral processes and pluralism," EIU stated in its report Tempo received on Wednesday, March 5.
Indonesia received fairly low scores on two of these components, namely political culture and civil liberties, with 5 and 5.29, respectively. EIU underscored several aspects of Indonesia's democracy, with a focus on the country's political affairs, including the presidential election, legislative election, and the regional head elections.
Political dynasty was especially highlighted in the research, where the election raised concern about centralized power and the lack of check and balances as Prabowo Subianto was elected alongside Gibran Rakabuming, former President Joko Widodo's son.
Concerns about political dynasties are widespread in Southeast Asia. In Thailand, the daughter of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was elected as the youngest Prime Minister of the country in August 2024.
Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos and the daughter of the previous president Rodrigo Duterte successfully seize the highest seat of power in the country.