Tuesday, 24 October 2023, the Faculty of Adab and Cultural Sciences held Bi-Weekly Forum #46 with the theme "Contemporary Development of Indonesian Politics" attended by Professor Greg Barton, academic and researcher from Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. This event was hybrid (online and offline) in the 2nd Floor Meeting Room of Fadib UIN Sunan Kalijaga and the Zoom meeting.

On this occasion, Professor Greg Barton shared his observations about the current dynamics of politics in Indonesia ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election. At the beginning of his presentation, he expressed his analysis that so far, none of the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates have expressed their views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to him, this is an important issue that needs to be addressed. So far, he continued, the discussion focused more on domestic conditions rather than external conditions occurring in the international context.

As an academic who has been studying democratisation in Indonesia for a long time, Prof. Greg Barton assesses that democracy in Indonesia is still quite healthy even though it has experienced a decline compared to ten years ago. Compared to Turkey, according to him, democracy in that country has almost died as measured by press freedom, the performance of the KPU, and the number of political figures arrested by the government regime. He remains optimistic about the sustainability of democracy in Indonesia.

Another important note from this lecture is the observation of Prof. Greg Barton about each candidate pair. According to him, there is no perfect presidential and vice presidential candidate pair. Anis Baswedan, for example, has carriage 212 bagage, which is a burden for him in this presidential election. Ganjar Pranowo, on the other hand, even though he has been regional head in Central Java for two periods, there are no breakthroughs or extraordinary achievements that can be relied on. Meanwhile, Prabowo, with his background as a military commander and his old age, has a tendency to bring his military-style when he becomes president.

Finally, he also highlighted the important role of digital media in the dynamics of the Presidential election in Indonesia. Reflecting on the 2014 and 2019 elections, the presence of the internet and digital platforms had been used, among other things, to carry out black campaigns with massive hoax news to bring down certain presidential and vice presidential candidates.

This bi-weekly discussion starts at 13.00 to 15.00. Opened with remarks from the Dean of the Faculty of Adab and Cultural Sciences, Professor Muhammad Wildan, MA, and moderated by Nini Salwa Istiqamah, S.IP., MIR. from the Faculty of Adab and Cultural Sciences, UIN Sunan Kalijaga.