The market as an unlikely ally against democratic backsliding

During my presentation at the Republic Conference, a gathering on May 30 in Yogyakarta that convened 130 civil society organizations to confront the current state of the country, my diagnosis was sober: Since 2019, our democracy has not merely stalled, it has regressed through entirely lawful means.

We have watched the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) be pulled back under executive control, the Constitutional Court's credibility hollowed out, the Job Creation Omnibus Law concentrate capital at the expense of labor and the environment and the 2025 Military Law revision reopen civilian posts to active officers.

None of this arrived by tank or mass arrest. Instead, it was systematically dismantled within the very plenary chambers meant to safeguard a democracy. We have a name for this: authoritarian legalism.