Indonesia can boast of being the world’s third-largest democracy today, after India and the United States. But it seems that this honorary title is tainted.
We can say that we continue to row on the wave of democracy and take it for granted. The fact is that our democracy is slipping.
Indonesia’s democracy rankings have been in the news for some time, especially since the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) released its Democracy Index 2023. The report provided a snapshot, or rather a wake-up call, of the country’s democracy.
Indonesia remains an imperfect democracy and ranks 56th with a score of 6.53 in 2023, after stagnating at 6.71 in the previous two years. However, its ranking has slipped two places, from 52nd in 2021 to 54th in 2022.
Indonesia’s democracy ranking also fell in another Freedom House report that “assesses citizens’ access to political rights and civil liberties in 210 countries.” The country is ranked this year as partly free with a score of 57 out of 100, down from 58 in 2023 and 59 in 2022.
According to the EIU Democracy Index, India is faring much better than Indonesia. Currently ranked 41st, India’s ranking has improved from 46th in 2022.
These results show that there is much to think about. However, one question arises: how can we improve our democratic performance? Not least because we believe in the form of government by the people and for the people, the word shit (independence) is the essence of Indonesian democracy.
