When the Constitutional Court handed down a ruling on November 13 prohibiting active police officers from holding civilian posts, many assumed that this would put an end to the legal loopholes allowing thousands of officers to serve in government ministries and state agencies.

But despite Constitutional Court rulings being final and binding, within days Indonesian Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo responded by issuing a new regulation allowing the practice to continue – a blatant act of disrespect for the rule of law.

Worse still, a lawmaker from President Prabowo Subianto's ruling Gerindra Party publicly defended the police chief's defiance of the court while another from the National Awakening Party (PKB) argued that the regulation did not violate the ruling.

Prabowo himself has been conspicuously silent on the matter, and political observers say that Listyo would only have had the confidence to snub his nose at the Constitutional Court if he had the support of the political elite, as represented by politicians from Gerindra and the PKB.

Meanwhile, President Prabowo's silence on the matter suggests he may still be calculating the political costs and benefits of the police regulation with respect to his administration's stability.

The police played a key role in suppressing the mass protests and riots last August, and even before this, reports of police partiality for Prabowo and vice presidential running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka were rampant ahead of the 2024 election.

[Based on a Jakarta Post editorial titled "Rule by the Law?".]