The Parody at The Constitutional Court

Feeling blessed today for being confined to bed due to cold, I received most exciting entertainment of the year. A parody presented by the plaintiff's witnesses at the Constitutional Court (MK) was amusing to watch. This was the trial the Indonesians have been waiting for to find out who would be declared as the winner in the Presidential Election legally.

Oh yes, the allegedly massive, structured, and systematic fraud in the election as the basis of a legal challenge against the official presidential election result announced by the General Election Commission on July 22, by the losing Prabowo-Hatta pair is indeed publicly proven in a live show! The public can directly see the shaky and nervous witnesses offered hearsay evidence, inaccurate data, forgotten numbers and names! 

The claim that the losing pair won by 50.52 percent against the rival camp who secured 49.74 percent based on Prabowo pairing vote calculation was also geniously delivered by the presentation of less convincing and inaccurate sporadic data! Even, one witness said there was only one vote inaccuracy in one of the polling station under his watch. Another brilliant witness confessed willingly that during the opening of the ballot boxes under dispute, he did not even attend the whole process! Hilarious indeed!

Furthermore, the Prabowo-Hatta team did not manage to bring in “10 trucks of evidence” as they have previously claimed to support their accusations. The first round of 26 witnesses also failed to present convincing evidence to support the claim and many showed inconsistency in their stories. The MK judges had to warn them several times the oath they had taken to tell nothing but truth, annoyed by the constant inconsistency and irrelevant stories to the claim.  

I frown in disbelief! These are the qualified witnesses the plaintiff's boasted. Wow, in my personal naive mind, this is a contempt to this esteemed court! This is not a stage for clowns!

Nonetheless, I still kept my positive thinking. Perhaps, these preliminary witnesses were still flexing their muscles! They have yet to find their rhythm. They were saving the best for last. So, I patiently continued to watch the trial on my TV screen as an enthusiastic student of law would look like.

Then, another genius stood on the witnesses rows cleverly and proudly said that the mayoral top ranking officials in his region have been impartial by devising scheme to support the winning pair. Recounting his stories, he confidently said there’s been a structural fraud to support the Jokowi pair.

Well, I thought this would be the strong evidence I have waited for! My ears twitched in anticipation. My body tensed with excitement for the first real qualified solid proof. And my heart skipped a beat.

The anguishing wait turned into a tragic laugh! Another hearsay evidence was rolled on and on! The genius witness said this accusation was based on some articles in newspaper! As if it was not enough entertaining, he went so far as to show off his emotion at play. With a faltering voice, he was almost on the verge on tears!

Bravo! He is certainly having the complete package of an actor!

I had to smile emphatically when the Chief Judge warned him to stop bubbling and rambling lest the court would evict him for disrupting court order. I thought it was not his fault to have such blind loyalty for his idol. It was the stupid ignorance of the brilliant lawyers who presented the man at court!

Never before, I have so much great interest in the trial process of any case. But this year presidential race law suit drawn me like a magnet. It's not the winning pair that made me follow the trial up close but it is the banal stubbornness of the losing pair and their supporters! 

Not to mention that in the preliminary hearing Wednesday, I was shocked to hear the honorable Prabowo Subianto told the court’s nine judges that some of the alleged election violations were worse than in totalitarian countries like North Korea. My jaw dropped! Comparing the democracy process in Indonesia with the totalitarian Nort Korea is absurd and a mock for Indonesia.

His raw ambition is displayed nakedly for the public to see. His language is nothing but a rhetoric of a combatant digging in for a siege. It is not the words of one seeking an honourable way to concede defeat.

His adamant reluctance to accept losing is perhaps fueled by his altruism, a belief that he’s the rightful heir of his former father in law who had ruled this nation for 32 years. He is destined and born to rule as has been foretold.

Backed by some richest men in this country including the tycoon Aburizal Bakrie and most popular religious parties which have strong grassroots, he has hard time to surrender the throne. It’s rare chance he has never received during his two previous contests. It’s just an inch away from his grasp! To let it go easily would be stupid and a shame!

Thus, it is no big surprise to see many acrobatic movements and schemes have been brought to the public sphere. The most recent is the statement made by Nurcahaya Tandang, the chairwoman of Srikandi Gerindra, saying that Prabowo is the reincarnation of God!!! That the rival pair is communist! So, it is a 'jihad' to ensure Prabowo-Hatta ticket for President and vice president. A claim she later apologized as a slip of the tongue! But the damage has been done.

Then, mobs of supporters have sieged the KPU’s gate to ‘safeguard’ the trial process be fair and impartial. They claimed to stage a peaceful rally but they chanted to take the KPU chairperson into their street justice. The Prabowo pair team also, ignorance of the public outcries for the country to move on, planned to canvass another tactic for a parliamentary committee to examine the election. If successful the Presidential inauguration scheduled for 20 October could be stalled, pushing the nation into politically hazardous territory.

I hope this is not happening! With the transparency of the judicial process so far and the increasing disappointment of the people with the Prabowo pair appalling movements, surely the lawmakers at the House will restrain themselves to agitate the public and plunge the nation into a deeper rift.

Having seen all these infuriating drama, I just want an end to all these foolish game. Like most citizens in this country, we want to move on! We want peace and unity after such a divide in the last presidential election. We have seen enough fools! We are sick seeing these wolves on stage fighting over the crown out of their reach!

So, please please please after MK gives its final binding verdict, all parties accept the decision! The result will be a victory of the people with regard to the development of democracy in the country, and in view of that, let’s hope that all sides will accept the result.  Let's support any President enforced by the decision and work together for the better future of Indonesia.