Unlike Ganjar, This is a Report Card on the Legal Condition During Jokowi's Era, According to a Research Institution

According to presidential candidate Ganjar Pranowo, Indonesia's law enforcement score has decreased during President Jokowi's era.

Ganjar attributes this decline to the Constitutional Court's (MK) decision regarding the minimum age limit for presidential and vice-presidential candidates, a decision whose process was later deemed to violate the code of ethics.

"With the case at the MK (Indonesian law), its value plummeted. Because of this incident, public perception today is different. What seemed firm yesterday, today, with recent events, is not so. Therefore, its value has plummeted," said Ganjar, as reported by CNN Indonesia on Sunday (November 19, 2023).

Ganjar stated that previously, Indonesia's law enforcement score was between 7-8 out of 10. However, after the controversial MK decision, the score dropped to 5.

"The factors that caused the decline are manipulation and intervention," said Ganjar.

However, Ganjar did not detail the data and methods used to assess this score decrease.

Indonesia's Legal Report According to the Rule of Law Index

Contrary to Ganjar's assessment, according to the Rule of Law Index from the independent research institution World Justice Project (WJP), Indonesia's legal condition during Jokowi's era has slightly improved, although not significantly.

WJP defines rule of law as a system of laws, institutions, norms, and a strong societal commitment to implementing four universal principles: accountability, fair laws, open government, and impartial and accessible justice.

WJP assesses the quality of the rule of law based on surveys of legal experts and the general public in 142 countries.

The survey records respondents' perceptions regarding 8 key assessment indicators:

1. Limitations on government powers;
2. Level of corruption;
3. Government transparency;
4. Protection of human rights (HAM);
5. Order and security;
6. Implementation and enforcement of regulations;
7. Civil justice; and
8. Criminal justice.

The survey results are formulated into a score on a scale of 0-1. The higher the score, the better a country's legal system is assumed to be, and vice versa.

Using this method, Indonesia achieved a Rule of Law Index score of 0.53 in 2023, slightly below the global average of 0.55.

This score is the same as in 2022 and only slightly higher than in 2015 when Jokowi first took office.

Broken down by indicator, in 2023 Indonesia achieved a fairly good score in terms of limitations on government powers, namely 0.66, higher than the global average of 0.54.

Indonesia also has a slightly higher score than the global average in terms of government transparency (0.55), and implementation and enforcement of regulations (0.57).

However, Indonesia's score is lower than the global average in terms of corruption levels (0.40), human rights protection (0.50), order and security (0.71), civil justice (0.47), and criminal justice (0.40).

This WJP Rule of Law Index data has been used by various institutions to formulate policies. Some of its users include the World Bank, the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).