Day: February 8, 2024

Two young men in shackles are interrogated by armed men. As villagers look on, the men are suspended from a tree and set on fire. Their screams are heard over the flames as a unified cheer goes up among observers.

Video footage of this atrocity has gone viral in Myanmar, fueling outrage in a nation already hardened to the depravity of war after three years of increasingly bloody conflict since the Feb. 1, 2021, military coup d’etat. 

Sympathizers have circulated artwork on social media to pay tribute to the men who died, Phoe Tay, 23, and Thar Htaung, 22. The art includes symbolic images of two stars hanging from a tree under a campfire.

The video shows their deaths in graphic detail. They were captured Nov. 7, 2023, in fighting between pro-junta forces and resistance fighters at Myauk Khin Yan village in Magway region’s Gangaw township. 

According to a local official from the administration of the shadow National Unity Government, the video was taken by a villager who fled the area on Dec. 12 and Dec. 13. It’s unclear who first posted the video that began circulating widely this week.

The two young men were members of the local Yaw Defense Force that attacked positions held by junta troops at Myauk Khin Yan and then retreated when reinforcements from the pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia arrived, according to the YDF. The two young men were left behind after they both sustained leg wounds.

The YDF said every household in Myauk Khin Yan was told to send one person to witness the executions.

The video starts with the two young men being questioned by armed, uniformed soldiers while shackled at the legs and their hands tied behind their backs.

The video then shows them dragged in chains to a nearby tree where they are hung as a fire is set just underneath. A crowd of people in civilian clothes can be seen in the background. Sporadic laughter from people apparently located closer to the violence can can be heard in the video.

Local sources, who declined to be name for safety reasons, said Phoe Tay was a first year university student and Thar Htaung was enrolled at a secondary school. Both were apparently enrolled in the resistance force.

Radio Free Asia spoke to the father of Phoe Tay. The father, Myint Zaw, already knew of his son’s death but has not seen the video – partly because he lacks adequate internet access in his village. He voiced horror and anger. 

“Yes, it is Po Tay, my son,” Myint Zaw said. “He is gone. His life as a human is over. At that time, they were tortured. There was blood on the head. I didn’t witness it, but I learned that he was beaten on the head, beaten on the knees.”

“We could not retrieve the body. Nobody could go there because Myauk Khin Yan is the stronghold village of Pyu Saw Htee [pro-junta militia],” he said.  

Myint Zaw said of the video: “I haven’t watched it. But there are reports about it, and many people are talking about it.”

“His friends in the village are horrified by it,” he said. “People are deeply hurt. They cannot accept such an act.”

Online outrage

Since the coup three years ago, reports of torture, beheadings and burning of corpses by junta forces have become commonplace, but the graphic nature of the Nov. 7 video has triggered a wave of revulsion in Myanmar and beyond – and sympathy for the dead. 

Hundreds of people have commented on Facebook and others have posted online images and memes that feature the two young men.

“I could no longer watch that video. How merciless they were,” said Facebook user Ko Zaw, who lists himself as a resident of Kuala Lumpur. “May you two avoid such a fate in your next lives. Please have compassion with each other, Myanmar citizens.” 

Among the social media artwork are images depicting two stars hanging from a tree, a phoenix rising from the ashes and two young men looking down into a cloud-covered valley.

“Whenever I check my phone, I see your faces, brothers,” said Facebook user and Bangkok resident Thein Lin Aung, who added that the amount of graphic photos and videos being reposted was bordering on the reckless.

“Even those without any blood relationship feel such a heavy pain,” he wrote. “Please think about their parents, families and relatives.” 

‘Justice must be sought’

RFA’s calls this week to junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the video went unanswered. 

But the junta-appointed Information Ministry claimed in a statement on Wednesday that the video was fabricated by militia groups and the two young men were killed by a rival People’s Defense Force.

“The illegal subversive media is only circulating fake news at the right time to mislead the public and the international community that the security forces are carrying out such inhumane and brutal acts of terrorism, which are being committed by the terrorists from the so-called PDFs,” the ministry said.

NUG spokesperson Nay Phone Latt told RFA that the NUG’s Ministry of Home Affairs has started building a case against the alleged perpetrators.

However, several sources told RFA that village residents have expressed their fear of identifying the culprits. After the killings, nearly 200 people fled the village because they felt threatened by Pyu Saw Htee militia members, local people said.

Gangaw township includes a significant number of supporters for the military junta and members of the Pyu Saw Htee militia, which the military has supplied with weapons and provided with training.

Aung Myo Min, the human rights minister for NUG, noted that some of the perpetrators in the video weren’t wearing a military uniform. He described the killings as “an act of evil which no human can accept … Justice must be sought for it.”  

Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s deputy director for Asia, said: “There are really unknown words in humanity for the persons who did this.”

“These two men should have been handed over to the proper authority for investigation, not to be burned alive while the camera was rolling in order to produce a film intended to intimidate others,” he said.

Edited by Matt Reed and Mat Pennington.

The Lao government has fired a high-ranking police officer in southern Savannakhet province for allegedly underreporting drug seizures and selling the remainder for personal profit, but didn’t charge him with a criminal offense, officials said.

On Jan. 25, the Lao Ministry of Public Security announced that it had fired a lieutenant colonel from the Savannakhet Provincial Police Department and disciplined four of his subordinates for underreporting seizures of methamphetamines and other drugs, and dealing the surplus.

The rare removal of a leading police official has made waves in impoverished Laos, where corruption is rampant and government officials enjoy near-total immunity from criminal acts.

But members of the public were upset that the disciplined police officers – like many other officials accused of corruption – aren’t facing prosecution.

They told RFA Lao that people in positions of authority who break the law should be criminally charged, just like any other person, rather than given a slap on the wrist.

“If [officials] break the law … they should not only be fired, but also charged with a criminal offense and jailed if found guilty,” said one citizen. “Just because they have power, doesn’t mean they are immune from justice. Everybody must be treated equally under the same laws.”

An official from the province confirmed the disciplinary action in an interview with RFA on Wednesday.

“The Ministry of Public Security dismissed the head of a police unit who is a lieutenant colonel, and disciplined four lower-ranking police officers – demoting and relocating them,” said the official who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity citing security concerns.

A police officer who worked with the five also confirmed their punishment in comments made to RFA.

“Only the head of the police unit was sacked,” he said. “The other four are still working for the provincial police department, but were demoted and relocated to other positions.”

The officer said that the lieutenant colonel was “not charged with a criminal offense” because “being fired is the most severe punishment” he could receive.

He said public security officials from the central government had traveled down to Savannakhet to personally oversee the disciplinary process.

A drop in rankings

Failure to hold officials accountable for corruption is an unfortunately common practice in Laos.

In 2022, RFA reported that the Ministry of Public Security disciplined 11 police officers by demoting them and relocating them within the capital Vientiane Police Department for allegedly accepting bail money and bribes from the accused and prisoners.

A similar case occurred in 2021, when the ministry dismissed two police officers – a captain and a lieutenant – who were said to have been involved in smuggling goods, illegal gambling, and allowing foreigners to enter the country without visas.

None of the officers were ever charged for their alleged crimes.

In its 2023 index, released on Jan. 30, graft watchdog Transparency International ranked Laos 136th out of 180 countries in terms of corruption perception, down from 126th a year earlier. The ranking placed Laos on par with Gabon, Mali and Paraguay.

Last year, the Lao State Inspection Authority said it had identified nine corrupt officials responsible for embezzling US$36 million in state funds. From 2021 to 2022, it reported that 74 officials had committed financial crimes, leading to a loss of US$52 million.

The official numbers are likely a drop in the bucket compared to what the state actually loses to graft on a yearly basis.

Part of the problem, observers say, is that not enough is being done by the central government to address the root causes of corruption in Laos.

No solutions offered

Plenty of officials have made it known that they are aware of the problems of corruption and immunity within the Lao government and among those who hold positions of power.

Gen. Vilay Lakhamfong, the Lao minister of public security, recently acknowledged that “some police officers abuse their power and position by facilitating drug trafficking and smuggling, while others set up checkpoints on highways and demand bribes from motorists.”

But the minister provided no details on what measures the government plans to put in place to deal with such offenses.

Even speaking privately, officials have appeared at a loss for how to rein in fraud in Laos.

RFA recently spoke with a member of the Lao State Inspection Authority who also expressed frustration over what he called “widespread corruption” in the country.

“Many local and central government officials do everything in their own interest,” he said. “Our laws have loopholes allowing officials to commit corruption. Our inspection agency has found many corrupt officials, and we’ve fired and demoted many of them.”

However, the state inspection official failed to elaborate on how the government should address the reasons behind the problem.

Consequences and root causes

Other citizens RFA spoke with said it is no secret that the authorities facilitate the drug trade and other forms of smuggling in Laos.

“Drug trafficking is on the news every day – the smugglers ship tons of drugs through Laos and then across the border to Thailand,” he said. “They can’t just do this by themselves, they must work with the police.”

But he complained that Lao government employees, including police officers, are paid low wages, making them susceptible to bribes they use to pad their incomes.

“They receive salaries that aren’t enough to live on,” he said. “If they made enough, corruption wouldn’t exist.”

Others have called for stricter punishments to send a message to would-be offenders.

At a meeting of the Lao National Assembly last year, a member of parliament urged the government to do more to crack down on graft, saying that alleged offenders should face criminal charges, at the very least.

“Our government has failed to tackle corruption,” the lawmaker said. “It doesn’t matter how powerful or high up an official is – he or she must be punished. So far, we haven’t done that.”

In the meantime, ordinary citizens are paying the price for the government’s unwillingness to solve the problem, a resident of Champassak province told RFA.

“Our laws are ineffective,” the resident said. “And it is because of corruption that our country has never been developed.”

Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

This is the second article in a three-part series on the Prince Group. For Part I of RFA’s investigation, click here. 

 

Since its founding eight years ago, the Prince Group has emerged as one of Cambodia’s most ubiquitous brands. Its name touches nearly every corner of the Cambodian marketplace: shopping malls, supermarkets, banks, casinos, apartments, cinemas, office blocks, private jets, pleasure boats, film production, hotels, venture capital firms, ride-hailing services, restaurants and more. 

The company’s reach also extends well beyond Cambodia. Its leaders have a controlling interest in at least three companies listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Prince Chairman Chen Zhi, an enigmatic 36-year-old Chinese national who rose to become a top adviser to both Cambodia’s current and former prime ministers, owns a quarter of Cuba’s national cigar company, valued at $2.8 billion, as well as a $114 million office building in one of London’s richest neighborhoods. 

In total, RFA has identified more than $1.5 billion of assets and investments in 31 countries in which senior Prince Group executives have a stake.

The group, however, has never fully accounted for its wealth. It maintains that its multi-billion dollar growth over the past eight years is due to savvy business practices and what was, until recently, Cambodia’s relentlessly booming property market.

But an RFA investigation that includes court records, banking documents, payment slips and interviews with company insiders tells a different story.

In the first part of our series, RFA examined the Prince Group’s rapid rise, political connections and alleged criminality. 

Here we explore how the Prince Group has stealthily moved millions of dollars around the world in a way that experts say bears many of the hallmarks of money laundering. 

RFA’s investigation has revealed that a company controlled by Chen, Amiga Entertainment, registered in the Isle of Man, is in fact a shell company that uses these suspected money laundering tactics.

RFA’s investigation supports allegations made by Chinese prosecutors that much of the money Prince has used to build its empire was acquired through fraud, including hundreds of millions from illegal gambling and an extensive money laundering network.

RFA has attempted to contact Chen on numerous occasions without success, but the Prince Group disputes the charges against both the company and its chairman. A spokesperson for the company responded to allegations of illegality in Chinese courts by claiming it is a victim of identity theft and that criminals have used its corporate identity to carry out illicit activities. 

The wealthy uncle 

In December 2018, a company owned by Prince Group founder Chen named Amiga Entertainment applied for an account with the Cayman National Bank in the Isle of Man. The bank rejected the company’s request, despite the fact that by then the Prince Group was a key player in the Cambodian marketplace. A hack of the bank’s records 11 months later gives a clue as to why. 

Money laundering is the process of making money gained through illegal means appear legitimate. It usually involves bouncing the money through a series of fictitious transactions, often spanning multiple jurisdictions, to give the illusion that it is the product of legitimate business activity.

Emails, transaction records and other documents contained within the hack, which was shared by whistleblowing non-profit Distributed Denial of Secrets, chart Amiga Entertainment’s failed attempt to land an account with Cayman National Bank. The hack showed the Prince Group was unwilling to reveal the source of its money – even when applying for a bank account. 

Any time a person or a business applies for a bank account or conducts a large transaction, bank officials are supposed to ask where the money comes from and to verify the claims as best they can. This process is designed to prevent criminals from getting access to the financial system and spending their ill-gotten gains. In the case of Amiga Entertainment, the due diligence carried out by Cayman National Bank shows just how little the mega-conglomerate was willing to share about the source of its funds. 

At the time of the application, Amiga’s immediate parent company was an Isle of Man online casino operator named Ableton Prestige Global Limited. An email to the bank by Ableton director John Corteen, which was among the hacked documents, reveals that Ableton’s owners were Prince Group chairman Chen and his wife, Li Caiyun. Corteen included a link to a Prince Group advertisement in the Phnom Penh Post to provide “some details of Mr. Chen’s businesses.” 

The bank responded by seeking more information about the origins of Chen’s wealth.

“In respect of Mr. Chen Zhi’s source of wealth, Mr. Chen Zhi first obtained a personal loan of US$2 million from his uncle to start Cambodian Heng Xin Real Estate Investment Co. Ltd. sometime in or around 2011,” reads an internal Cayman National Bank file note summarizing the response of Chen’s representatives, dated July 2019.

Chen’s explanation for the origins of his fortune would be unacceptable to most banks, according to financial crime expert Graham Barrow, who spent 25 years working for banks and the wider financial services industry.

“An uncle who lends you $2 million is such a generic statement as to be wholly inadequate for any financial institution to accept because they need to understand the ultimate source of wealth, not an intermediate source,” Barrow told RFA. “It gives the impression that they don’t want anyone to dig too deep into their source of wealth.”

A little over two months after the file note was created, a compliance official at the bank sought more details, in an email dated Oct. 7, 2019. Crucially, she wanted to know the name of the uncle who loaned Chen the $2 million in 2011 and where he got the money.

Chen and his representatives never responded, which is another red flag, according to Oliver Bullough, author of “Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How To Take It Back.”

“If someone asks you to explain your wealth and you go away, that’s not a good sign because it isn’t that difficult to do,” Bullough told RFA. 

Corteen and Chen did not respond to requests for comment on the issues raised in this story. Emails to the address listed on Amiga’s website bounced back with an error message indicating the message had been blocked, while emails to Ableton went unanswered. 

Don’t ask, don’t tell

If the mystery funds set off alarm bells, the ownership structure of Amiga may well have rung others. 

At the time of its incorporation in October 2018, Amiga Entertainment’s ultimate parent company was the Singapore-registered Infinite Deemarco Pte Ltd. The man listed in Singapore company records as Infinite Deemarco’s owner at that time, a Filipino American lawyer named Henry Yeh, told RFA that he had no idea where the company’s financing came from.

“I was told that it came from China as Prince [management] are all from China,” Yeh said. “They have every right not to tell me or to lie to me as I was just an employee.”

In admitting that he was the owner in name only, Yeh shed light on how Prince Group frequently manages its subsidiaries as a series of shell corporations so that their connection to the group is not apparent from their shareholders and directors. A 2022 report by the World Bank warned that such structures are ripe for abuse. 

This “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to managing billions of dollars is familiar to Kimberly Kay Hoang, a University of Chicago sociology professor who spent 18 months shadowing Southeast Asian investment professionals for her book “Spiderweb Capitalism.” The book reveals the way high-level business is done in the region, allowing politically connected individuals to merge their illicit wealth with legitimate business enterprises. 

CEOs like Yeh find themselves “assuming all the criminal and reputational risk and being highly compensated for doing it,” Hoang told RFA. In exchange, they “generally don’t ask questions about the origin and source of funds.” Yeh is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Eighteen months after he founded the company, Yeh transferred his shares to an individual who holds directorships in three Prince Group companies in Cambodia, according to Singaporean and Cambodian corporate records reviewed by RFA.

Ben Cowdock, a senior investigator at Transparency International U.K., also believes Yeh’s description of arrangements at Infinite Deemarco are cause for concern.

“If you have the CEO and shareholder of a company not knowing where their business earns money, they’re either wildly negligent or acting on behalf of someone else,” Cowdock told RFA, having been briefed on Infinite Deemarco’s ownership structure. “Those putting their name on official paperwork for a third party is a widely known method of avoiding undue scrutiny from the authorities.”

Slot machines and washing machines

In 2020, Beijing established a special police task force to investigate the Prince Group. Subsequent court cases against low-level employees have determined that at least 5 billion yuan ($700 million) of Prince Group funds are from illegal gambling.

RFA’s investigation into Amiga Entertainment sheds additional light on how Prince Group sought to hide where its money came from.

It was during Yeh’s brief tenure as Infinite Deemarco’s owner and CEO that the company incorporated Amiga Entertainment as its subsidiary in the Isle of Man. Yeh told RFA that Amiga Entertainment’s business model was, “to make similar games without infringing IPs [intellectual property].” In essence, to produce cheap knock-offs of already existing video games.

Documents reviewed by RFA show the true business model was more complex.

Amiga Entertainment’s website showcases the games it develops. Each one is essentially a slot machine, with players placing bets in the hope that certain combinations of symbols appear. Such games are legal in the Isle of Man. However, banking records seen by RFA show that Amiga was licensing these games to companies in China, where – outside of the state lottery – all forms of gambling are strictly forbidden.

The contracts specified that the Chinese companies would pay £940,000 ($1 million) a year in exchange for the right to market one of Amiga Entertainment’s games to their customers. Additionally, the Chinese companies would pay 30% of any revenue earned. (Asked about these contracts, Yeh responded, “I don’t know anything about copycat games for millions.”)

The twist, according to a former Prince insider who was familiar with the workings of Amiga Entertainment and its parent companies, is that these transactions were fictitious. The insider asked not to be named for safety reasons.

“[Amiga Entertainment] is the one they used for laundering money,” the person told RFA. “They pumped in all the money through here.”

The companies in China were neither utilizing the games nor paying for them, the source claimed. Instead, the contracts signed between Amiga Entertainment and the Chinese companies were used to justify large cash transfers between Southeast Asia and the Isle of Man. 

Typically, businesses move money from one area of their operation to another through a bank. But the money sent to Amiga Entertainment came instead from a money services operator in Hong Kong. Also known as remittance agencies, money services operators transfer funds internationally on behalf of customers, who are frequently people or small businesses that cannot access traditional banking. Some, such as Western Union, have become household names. There are, however, thousands of smaller operators across the world, such as the one used by Amiga Entertainment’s purported Chinese clients. Remittance agencies charge far steeper fees than banks, and it is highly unorthodox for a large company to move money in this way. With the higher fees, though, come fewer questions.

“The remittance company doesn’t care where the real source of money is,” the person said.

Copies of remittance slips, contracts and invoices reviewed by RFA bore details that correlated with payments that could also be identified in the Cayman National Bank leak. While Amiga Entertainment never had an account with the bank, a money services operator that handled payments for the company was a client. (Four payments worth a total of $830,000 were identified within Cayman National Bank’s records as destined for Amiga Entertainment Limited all bore the reference CLA0878, which was also the payment reference used on the remittance slips reviewed by RFA.) 

“The Isle of Man will ask what’s the reason for the money, so you need a proxy in China,” the Prince insider said, referring to the licensees. In reality, “the money never originated in China,” they added.

Once the money had been remitted to Amiga Entertainment’s account in the Isle of Man, it would begin its journey up through the various layers of the company’s ownership, the source continued. 

Corporate records seen by RFA back up the source’s account and indicate that the ultimate destination for the funds would be Chen and his wife’s family office in Singapore. The money would appear as the legitimate profits from the couple’s investment in successful Isle of Man gambling businesses. 

An internal spreadsheet of Amiga Entertainment’s finances viewed by RFA suggests that more than $100 million was moved this way.

Transparency International’s Cowdock said the transactions appeared highly suspicious and called on the Isle of Man to investigate. 

“If someone is selling licenses for gambling games to a country where this activity would be illegal, and accepts payments outside of usual banking channels, this is a major red flag that needs investigating,” said Cowdock. 

The Prince Group’s director of communications, Gabriel Tan, told RFA in an email that the company’s “primary focus lies in investments and developments within Cambodia” and that it is “not involved in the allegations you mentioned regarding activities in … Singapore, Cuba, or the Isle of Man.”

“In all his business dealings, Chairman Chen Zhi consistently complies with the laws of the jurisdictions in which he operates, as well as with those governing him as a Cambodian citizen,” Tan added.

Messages seeking comment sent to the contact address listed on Amiga Entertainment’s website returned error messages, suggesting the company’s servers were not properly set up to receive emails.

Spread the wealth

Despite his success as a Cambodian citizen, Chen and other senior Prince Group figures in recent years have begun relocating their lives from Phnom Penh to the United Kingdom and the United States.

Chen is listed in British corporate records as the owner of a $114 million office block in the heart of London’s financial district and a mansion worth in excess of $25 million on the city’s exclusive Avenue Road.

Another senior Prince executive is the owner of two British companies that own 17 London apartments purchased for a total of $32 million.

Across the Atlantic, three Prince Group executives own mansions in suburban Los Angeles worth a total of $8 million. One of them also owns a 26-meter Sunseeker pleasure yacht docked off the coast of California, along with a luxury car dealership and a sex toy manufacturer in the state, according to California court and corporate records reviewed by RFA.

High-end homes in London and LA are typical trappings of the ultra-wealthy. But a source close to Cambodia’s Interior Ministry suggested another motivation for the Prince executive migration: having a place to run to if China’s investigation into the conglomerate expands.

“In 2019, the Chinese ambassador told Chen Zhi to cease all criminal acts and not to interfere in investigations into his people,” the source said, asking not to be named as they were not authorized to speak publicly. “The Chinese government has not come to extradite anyone since Covid began, but they will.”

Edited by Abby Seiff, Jim Snyder, Mat Pennington and Boer Deng. 

With only a week left until voters in Indonesia head to the polls to elect his successor, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is facing a political storm over allegations of meddling with the vote in this young democracy. 

On Wednesday, hundreds of students gathered in Jakarta to denounce the president’s “intervention” in the electoral process, as more universities joined a chorus of academia urging him to stay true to democratic values.

Jokowi’s attempt to mollify them and other critics a day earlier by saying he wouldn’t interfere in the vote may not have been convincing. He had caused a furor last month by saying he was allowed to pick sides for the Feb. 14 election.  

The election so far may not be tainted by the violent clashes and sectarian rhetoric that marked the last two, but it’s a race marred by controversies over partisanship, eligibility and ethical breaches.

To draw attention to the allegedly undemocratic developments,  scores of university students marched from Trisakti University to the State Palace in the capital on Wednesday afternoon. 

They held banners that read “Jokowi is deceitful,” and “Reject the unfair election,” local media and news agency Reuters reported.

“We are done with the president’s intervention in the 2024 election especially to help a human rights criminal win the election,” Tegar Afriansyah, who organized the protest, told Reuters.

He was referring to one of the three presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto, who is also defense minister. Jokowi is ineligible for a third five-year term because of constitutional limits.

Prabowo is widely accused of grave human rights violations under the regime of former dictator Suharto, although he has never been tried in court.

\In addition to voting for a new president, Indonesians will be electing hundreds of officials for the national legislature, provincial legislatures, governor’s offices as well as regency and city posts. 

Prabowo’s running mate is Jokowi’s eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, whose path to the contest was cleared by a highly controversial court decision in October. 

This alliance has raised concerns among some Indonesians about dynastic politics and nepotism.

Critics, including faculty members from more than a dozen universities across the country, have accused Jokowi of straying from democratic principles and attempting to create a political dynasty by advancing his relatives.

“Our country has lost its way because of unethical and deceitful power struggles,” Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, a professor at the University of Indonesia, told a press conference in West Java last week, The Jakarta Post reported.

Earlier, Gadjah Mada University, Jokowi’s own alma mater in Yogyakarta, in a statement accused the president of “deviating” from democratic values.

Gibran, the mayor of Solo, has benefited from a controversial ruling by the Constitutional Court in October, which revised the minimum age for presidential and vice-presidential candidates from 40 to any age for those who have served as regional heads.

The court’s chief justice, Anwar Usman, who is married to Jokowi’s sister, was dismissed from his post in November by ethical violations linked to the ruling.

Although Jokowi has not officially endorsed any candidates, it is generally viewed that he will favor Prabowo and his son, Gibran. Jokowi defeated Prabowo in the last two elections in 2019 and 2014.

Ari Dwipayana, who coordinates Jokowi’s presidential staff, last week accused the president’s political enemies of orchestrating the wave of criticism against Jokowi, according to an article by Tempo.

“The strategy of partisan politics is allowed in political contestation,” Ari said. 

Responding to the criticism, Jokowi said it was everyone’s democratic right to speak out, Kompas, another Indonesian news outlet, quoted him as saying.

“Yes, that is democracy, everyone is allowed to speak and express their opinions. Please do so,” Jokowi said.  

Recent opinion polls show Prabowo leading the three-way race for the top job by a wide margin.

The latest survey, released Wednesday by Populi Center, found that 52.5% of the respondents favored Prabowo, followed by 22.1% for former Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan, and 16.9% for former Central Java Gov. Ganjar Pranowo.

The winning ticket would need to secure more than 50% of the national vote and 20% of the vote in half the provinces to avoid a runoff on June 26. The runoff would only require a candidate to secure more than 50% of the vote.

Populi Center said that the Prabowo-Gibran pair has managed to attract young voters who are looking for a fresh and dynamic leadership, as well as older voters who are loyal to Prabowo and Jokowi.

Prabowo’s popularity has been boosted by his campaign portrayal as a likable and relatable figure, using TikTok to attract young voters with humorous and fun content. Additionally, backing from groups such as the influential Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama has also helped, said Mada Sukmajati, a lecturer at Gadjah Mada University.

Nahdlatul Ulama has not formally said it backs Prabowo, but its leaders have voiced support for him.

“There’s also the use of state officials and resources, from ministers to village heads, to support his campaign, thanks to Jokowi’s intervention,” Mada told BenarNews. 

Jokowi has also been accused of using populist measures, such as early handing out of social aid early, raising salaries for civil servants, police and the military, which critics say are aimed at boosting Prabowo’s chances.

One student at Wednesday’s march said people could see through such actions.

“If Jokowi dares to distribute social assistance and even says that a president can campaign, it means he has committed many violations. Jokowi is embarrassing us because he thinks people are stupid,” Kevin, a Trisakti University student, was quoted as saying in a report by local news magazine Tempo.

Foul play at campaign events?

Allegations of irregularities in the upcoming polls rose on Monday, with the election ethics council reprimanding the General Election Commission for not changing age requirement rules before registering Gibran as a VP candidate. Though the rebuke did not affect Gibran’s eligibility, it added to the scandal surrounding his candidacy.

The election commission’s chief, Hasyim Asy’ari, was also found guilty of another election-related ethics breach last year for travelling with a politician whose party was subject to a verification process for eligibility to participate in the election.

Meanwhile, the campaign has also been tainted by allegations of foul play, such as Ganjar’s supporters being restrained by security officers during rallies, and their posters being taken down by authorities.

Anies faced an electricity blackout just as he was about to hold a rally in Madura, East Java, on Jan. 31 and was also forced to move campaign events several times after permits to use venues were withdrawn at the last minute.

Anies has criticized Jokowi’s handling of the economy, citing growing inequality and unemployment, and promised to improve public services, education and health.

He has also pledged to uphold the principles of pluralism, tolerance, and democracy, which they claim have been eroded under Jokowi’s rule

Ganjar has positioned himself as the moderate and progressive alternative, focusing on their achievements in governance, anti-corruption, and human rights.

Analysts said this year’s election poses a new challenge for Indonesia’s democracy, as it tests its institutions and the maturity of its political actors.

“The ethical violations have caused a serious erosion of democracy,” said Siti Zuhro, a researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), in a discussion on Wednesday titled “Democracy on the Edge.” 

Firman Noor, another political analyst, warned that the breaches and abuse of power could undermine the fairness and integrity of the elections.

“I’m afraid the (election) outcome would be invalid,” Firman said, meaning someone could challenge the result because of the ethical breaches.

“The government must follow the law, not twist it, and not create dynasties or let oligarchy take over.”

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.

Amid a backlog of Senate confirmation hearings, the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor has not had a confirmed leader since President Joe Biden took office with a pledge to put human rights at the center of his foreign policy.

That appears imminently set to change, with Dafna Hochman Rand – Biden’s nominee for assistant secretary of state in charge of the bureau – breezing through a joint confirmation hearing on Thursday.

A skeleton crew in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee met seemingly as a formality, with Chairman Sen. Ben Cardin noting the absence of Republicans, who were meeting to discuss the carving up of a bill that had included funding for the U.S. southern border.

“There is a lot going on today,” said Cardin, who is a Democrat from Maryland. “You may have read about some of that in the paper.”

But Cardin said their absence, in a way, showed their faith in the quality of the nominees before the committee, with Rand joined by two other White House nominees, including for ambassador to Timor-Leste.

“We do have a scheduled vote for a little later and say afternoon, and there’s negotiations going on,” he said. “That’s the reason why you might not see the type of normal participation at this hearing – it’s a reflection, I think, of the positive quality of our nominees.”

Now a resident fellow at Georgetown University, Rand previously served as the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor during the Obama administration, and until last year was director of the State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance.

Rand faced no critical questions during her hearing on Thursday, with only Sen. Jim Risch, a Republican from Idaho who serves as his party’s ranking member on the committee, ducking into the hearing at its opening to offer brief thoughts on her nomination.

Risch said he hoped Rand would use the bureau’s millions of dollars in foreign assistance to help legitimate rights defenders around the world “and not the agenda of the left.” He then excused himself and left.

Unfilled position

The Senate is currently working through an extensive backlog of nominees from the White House, with the average number of days it takes to confirm a single person having grown from about 80 days under President George W. Bush to about 145 today under Biden.

The unusual backlog has even led to a push to allow the Senate to confirm up to 10 appointees from each committee in a single vote, in order to cut down on the delays caused by procedural business.

In the meantime, the position of assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor has been filled by an acting official who does not need to be confirmed by the Senate.

Cardin said it was a position that is particularly important to fill as the assistant secretary represents “our voice in regards to our values” in the State Department, calling the delays “unacceptable.”

“Whether it’s your generals from Myanmar or the Kremlin in Moscow, repression is on the rise,” Cardin said, adding that “attacks against human rights defenders are up across the globe and coups and democratic backsliding threaten progress on every continent.”

During her testimony, Rand said that her top two priorities, if confirmed, would be to focus on “how we respond to the PRC,” referring to the People’s Republic of China, and Russia’s threats to human rights.

“The U.S. is not only competing with the PRC in the military and economic domains – these are critical to U.S. national security and prosperity – but this is also a contest about the fate of the rules based international order,” Rand said. “The PRC’s vision suppresses freedom of expression and persecutes ethnic and religious minorities.”

She also pledged to advocate for a more “consistent” U.S. foreign policy when it comes to defending human rights, even as she said there were times when other foreign policy interests interceded.

Rand said she hoped to “make sure those times are few and far between” and said there were “careful and creative” ways to integrate human rights into U.S. foreign policy decisions that “improves our power, our standing, our influence and our leverage.”

After less than an hour, Cardin called on Rand and her two fellow nominees to respond to any written questions submitted by senators not present as soon as possible to expedite their confirmation.