Despite being a major player in the ending of Soeharto's New Order regime in 1998, today the Indonesian pro-democracy movement is a marginal force in Indonesian politics and the process of reformasi is in the hands of other (elite) forces. Accordingly, there are some who now question if the quest to establish what would have been the world's third largest democracy is now a lost cause. This book represents a unique joint effort by concerned scholars and reflective activists to review and analyze the character, problems, and options facing the Indonesian pro-democracy movement. It is the first study to analyze why the pro-democracy movement failed to capitalize on its earlier successes and today is marginalized.
"The fall from power of Indonesia's President Suharto in 1998 has drawn much media and academic attention but the focus has been on the elite perspective, the role of the regime and military; little has been published on civil society, let alone gender issues." "This study, which covers the period from Suharto's fall up until the latest democratic elections in 2004, analyses the role of civil society in Indonesia's transition towards democracy. Here, the author argues that social movements are civil society's primary catalysts for change."--BOOK JACKET.
For decades almost the only social scientists who visited Indonesia’s provinces were anthropologists. Anybody interested in politics or economics spent most of their time in Jakarta, where the action was. Our view of the world’s fourth largest country threatened to become simplistic, lacking that essential graininess. Then, in 1998, Indonesia was plunged into a crisis that could not be understood with simplistic tools. After 32 years of enforced stability, the New Order was at an end. Things began to happen in the provinces that no one was prepared for. Democratization was one, decentralization another. Ethnic and religious identities emerged that had lain buried under the blanket of the New Order’s modernizing ideology. Unfamiliar, sometimes violent forms of political competition and of rentseeking came to light. Decentralization was often connected with the neo-liberal desire to reduce state powers and make room for free trade and democracy. To what extent were the goals of good governance and a stronger civil society achieved? How much of the process was ‘captured’ by regional elites to increase their own powers? Amidst the new identity politics, what has happened to citizenship? These are among the central questions addressed in this book. This volume is the result of a two-year research project at KITLV. It brings together an international group of 24 scholars – mainly from Indonesia and the Netherlands but also from the United States, Australia, Germany, Canada and Portugal.
Three decades of authoritarian rule in Indonesia came to a sudden end in 1998. The collapse of the Soeharto regime was accompanied by massive economic decline, widespread rioting, communal conflict, and fears that the nation was approaching the brink of disintegration. Although the fall of Soeharto opened the way towards democratization, conditions were by no means propitious for political reform. This book asks how political reform could proceed despite such unpromising circumstances. It examines electoral and constitutional reform, the decentralization of a highly centralized regime, the gradual but incomplete withdrawal of the military from its deep political involvement, the launching of an anti-corruption campaign, and the achievement of peace in two provinces that had been devastated by communal violence and regional rebellion.
In May 1998 the fall of Suharto marked the beginning of a difficult and multi-layered transition process. It was accompanied by intensified conflict in the political arena, a dramatic increase of ethnic and religious violence and the danger of national disintegration. Ten years after the collapse of the New Order, Indonesia has made significant progress, however the quality of democracy is still low. Theoretically innovative and empirically sound, this book is an in-depth analysis of the Indonesian reform process since 1998. Marco Bünte and Andreas Ufen bring together a selection of noted Indonesia experts to provide new insights into the restructuring of core state institutions, the empowerment of Parliament, the slow and difficult evolution of the rule of law, and the transfer of power to locally elected regional governments (decentralization). Based on the results of extensive fieldwork, Democratization in Post-Suharto Indonesia will be an important read for scholars engaged in research on Indonesia and the politics of Southeast Asia.
Essay aus dem Jahr 2005 im Fachbereich Orientalistik / Sinologie - Indonesisch, Note: 68, University of Leeds, Veranstaltung: International Studies, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: In his controversial and often-cited book "The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order", Harvard's Samuel Huntington several times stated that Islamic culture and society, which is inhospitable to Western liberal principles, is in large part to blame for the failure of democracy in the Muslim world. In the end, the former upbeat spokesperson for democracy's "third wave" concluded: "Democratic prospects in the Muslim republics are bleak." (1996: 29, 114, 193) The most populous Muslim republic of the world at a quick look seemed to be a telling proof of what Huntington said. Indonesia was ruled by the authoritarian regime of dictator Suharto in more than 30 years. After his fall, it was even more infamous for the human abuses in East Timor and Aceh, the Islamic opposition to a female president (1999), Bali bombings and the emergence of Islamic fundamentalism. However, in this essay, I argue that Indonesia is a vivid example of the compatibility of Islam and democracy. Contrary to being a conservative anti-democratic force, Islam in Indonesia has been "integral to democratization" (SAPC, 2004: 2) and become the single most important force for political change (Hefner, 2000: 18). My arguments will begin with a brief of the lack of democracy in the New Order (1967-1998) and the transition to democracy following it. Then I will provide another brief of an Indonesian Islam in different periods and its relationship with post-independence politics. Yet the core of my essay lies in the third section: the role of Islam in the transition to democracy in Indonesia, in which I will prove that Islam has played a critical part in the pro-democracy movement, in the research on the compatibility of Islam and democracy, in elections and in the building of a civil society in Indonesia... Finally, th
This book deals with two major issues: how Indonesian NGOs survived under Suharto's authoritarian rule; and how NGOs contributed to the promotion of democracy in the post-Suharto era. If NGOs are to change from 'development' to 'movement' in democratic post-Suharto Indonesia, they must adjust not only their management and working style, but also their very ideology. This comprehensive study will be an important book for scholars interested in Asian studies, Indonesian politics and development studies.
