The most recently issued Governmental Regulation (PP) number 17/2020 on the management of civil servants is another droplet on a huge seismic shift undermining Indonesia’s democratic checks and balances. This PP 17/2020 revision on the management of civil servants basically gives the president full power and in a way very arbitrary authority to promote, demote, or fire any civil servant. The vice chair of the Civil Servant Commission (KASN), Tasdik Kisnarto, gave a rather non-sensical reason for granting this micro-management authority to the president. He claims that the president can take over civil servant appointments if the merit system in place is abused. It really feels like an absurd reason, giving an individual such arbitrary powers over a merit system in place. Basic logic calls for upgrading the merit system over its flaws, not giving one individual authoritative arbitrary powers to supersede it. The Jakarta Post published an apt editorial “Fight COVID-19, not critics”, amid relative silence regarding a certain creeping authoritarianism especially felt entering Joko Widodo’s second term.