Indonesia election 2024: Jokowi accused of ‘abuse of power’ after he claims to spy on political parties
The Indonesian president has doubled down on his claims that he has access to ‘inside’ information about domestic political parties, even as rights groups raise concernsIndonesian intelligence agencies are obliged to report to the president on enemies of the state and national security affairs, not political parties and civiliansIndonesiaResty Woro YuniarPublished: 7:58pm, 19 Sep, 2023Why you can trust SCMP
Unlike the 1970s American political crisis that eventually brought down former US president Richard Nixon, however, it was not investigative reporting but Widodo himself who over the weekend revealed the snooping of political parties by the security services.
“I know the insides of [political] parties. I know what type of parties [they are]. I know the directions where they want to go. The information that I received was complete. I [received them] from the State Intelligence Agency, from the intelligence at the national police, I also have them from the intelligence at the military,” Jokowi, as the president is commonly known, said on Saturday during a speech in front of a group of his volunteers.
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He added that he also knew of the parties’ “data figures and surveys”.