Introduction

The 2024 Indonesian presidential election signified a remarkable turning point in Indonesian modern history. After the fall of President Suharto’s authoritarian New Order regime (1967–98), the country embarked on a journey of renewed freedom, known as Reformasi , with a series of democratically elected governments. In recent years, however, democracy and civic freedoms in Indonesia have been in decline ( Hamid and Hermawan 2020 ; Warburton and Power 2020 ). In the 2014 and 2019 elections, Joko Widodo (“Jokowi”), an unusual outsider of the political echelon, was favoured by many Indonesian activist groups as the preferred option over his competitor, Prabowo Subianto, a former New Order general with a record of human rights abuses. In a surprise move, after defeating him for a second time, in 2019, President Jokowi appointed Prabowo as the Minister of Defence, and ultimately paving the way for Prabowo’s victory in the 2024 elections. Jokowi’s support for his former rival cemented his own family’s place as a dynasty in Indonesia’s political history by putting forward his eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, as Prabowo’s running mate and now vice-president. These recent developments raise critical questions about what has been achieved in just over twenty-five years of Reformasi , and whether, or to what extent, there will be further New Order-style restrictions on political freedom and democratic representation in the years to come.