Post-authoritarian Indonesia: A comparative Southeast Asian perspective

Critical Asian Studies

Volumn 37, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 251-275

  Heryanto, Ariel ^a   Hadiz, Vedi R ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE   (Australia)

^b NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE   (Singapore)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AUTHORITARIANISM; DEMOCRACY; NATIONAL POLITICS; POLITICAL CHANGE;

ASIA; EASTERN HEMISPHERE; EURASIA; INDONESIA; SOUTHEAST ASIA; WORLD;

EID: 20644453557     PISSN: 14672715     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/14672710500106341     Document Type: Review

References (126)

1. Ariel Heryanto, "Indonesian Middle-class Opposition in the 1990s," in Political Oppositions in Industrialising Asia, ed. Garry Rodan (London: Routledge, 1996), 241-71.
2. Vedi R. Hadiz, Workers and the State in New Order Indonesia (London: Routledge, 1997).
3. See, for example, Arief Budiman, ed., State and Civil Society in Indonesia, Monash Papers on Southeast Asia No. 22 (Clayton: Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, 1990).
4. Raymond Williams put it succinctly when he stated that "no mode of production, and therefore no dominant society or order of society, and therefore no dominant culture, in reality exhausts the full range of human practice, human energy, human intention." See Problems in Materialism and Culture (London: Verso 1980), 43;
5. see also his Marxism and Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), 125).
6. For Ralph Milliband, the work of hegemonic rule "is never done" ( Capitalist Democracy in Britain [Oxford University Press, 1982], 76).
7. It should be noted that conclusions from such a comparative assessment may vary depending on when the analysis is made. Ours is based on what had transpired by 2004.
8. Barrington Moore, Social Origins of Dictatorsbip and Democracy (Harmondsworth: Penguin University Books, 1966);
9. Garry Rodan, ed., Political Oppositions in Industrialising Asia (London and New York: Routledge, 1996);
10. Eva-Lotta Hedman, "Contesting State and Civil Society: Southeast Asia Trajectories," Modern Asian Studies 35, no. 4 (2001): 921-51;
11. Vincent Boudreau, "Diffusing Democracy? People Power in Indonesia and the Philippines," Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 31, no. 4 (1999): 3-18.
12. For the Indonesian case, see especially Richard Robison and Vedi R. Hadiz, Reorganising Power in Indonesia: The Politics of Oligarchy in an Age of Markets (London: Routledge Curzon, 2004).
13. Harold Crouch, Economic Change, Social Structure and Political System in Southeast Asia (Singapore: SEASP and ISEAS, 1985), 40.
14. See Gabriel Almond and James Coleman, The Politics of Developing Areas (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1960),
15. Lucien Pye, "Political Science and the Crisis of Authoritarianism," American Political Science Review 84, no. 1 (1990): 3-19.
16. Larry Diamond, "Elections without Democracy: Thinking about Hybrid Regimes," Journal of Democracy 13, no. 2, April (2002): 21-35.
17. Larry Diamond, "Elections without Democracy: Thinking about Hybrid Regimes," Journal of Democracy 13, no. 2, April (2002): 22.
18. Scott Mainwaring, Daniel Brinks, and Anibal Perez-Linan, "Classifying Political Regimes in Latin America, 1945-1999," Studies in Comparative International Development 36, no. 1 (2001): 37-65.
19. Robison and Hadiz, Reorganising Power in Indonesia, 27-29.
20. Coen Holtzappel, "The 30 September Movement: A Political Movement of the Armed Forces on an Intelligence Operation?" Journal of Contemporary Asia 9, no. 2 (1979): 216-40;
21. Peter Dale Scott, "The United States and the Overthrow of Sukarno, 1965 1967," Pacific Affairs 58, no. 2 (summer 1986): 239-64;
22. Julie Southwood and Patrick Flanagan, Indonesia: Law, Propaganda and Terror (London: Zed Press, 1983).
23. Robert Cribb, "Problems in the Historiography of the Killings in Indonesia," in The Indonesian Killings of 1965-1966; Studies from Java and Bali, ed. Robert Cribb (Clayton: Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, 1990), 1-43.
24. John T. Sidel, "Bossism and Democracy in the Philippines, Thailands, and Indonesia: Towards an Alternative Framework for the Study of 'Local Strongmen,'" in Politicising Democracy: The New Local Politics and Democratisation, ed. John Harriss, Kristin Stokke, and Olle Tornquist (London: Palgrave, 2004), 61.
25. For details and examples, see Robison and Hadiz, Reorganising Power in Indonesia, especially chapters 4 and 5.
26. Ibid.;
27. Vedi R. Hadiz, "Reorganising Political Power in Indonesia: A Reconsideration of so-called 'Democratic Transitions,'" Pacific Review 16, no. 4 (2003): 591-611.
28. Benedict Anderson, "Cacique Democracy in the Philippines: Origins and Dreams," New Left Review 169 (May/June 1988): 3-31;
29. Paul D. Hutchcroft, "Sustaining Economic and Political Reform: The Challenges Ahead," in The Philippines: New Directions in Domestic Policy and Foreign Relations, ed. David G. Timberman, (New York: Asia Society, 1998);
30. John T. Sidel, Capital, Coercion and Crime: Bossism in the Philippines (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999).
31. Ruth McVey, ed., Money and Power in Provincial Thailand (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2000).
32. Kevin Hewison, for example, notes that local "Godfathers" lacked the financial muscle to defeat Thaksin in the 2000-1 elections, which followed the economic crisis ("The Politics of Neoliberalism: Class and Capitalism in Contemporary Thailand," Working Papers Series no. 45 (Hong Kong: Southeast Asia Research Centre, City University of Hong Kong, 2003).
33. Hadiz, "Reorganising Political Power in Indonesia."
34. Anders Uhlin, Indonesia and the "Third Wave of Democratization". Indonesian Pro-Democracy Movement in a Changing World (Surrey: Curzon Press, 1997);
35. Rodan, Political Oppositions in Industrialising Asia;
36. Ariel Heryanto and Sumit K. Mandal, eds., Challenging Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia: Comparing Indonesia and Malaysia (London: Routledge Curzon, 2003).
37. Musa Asy'arie, "Jalan Reformasi Menemui Kebuntuan," Kompas, 19 December 2003;
38. Syamsuddin Haris, "Soeharto, Soekarno, dan Kegagalan Reformasi," Koran Tempo, 23 December 2003;
39. Hendardi, "Demokrasi dan Orde Baru," Kompas, 22 December 2003;
40. Indra J. Piliang, "Kembalinya Klan Politik Cendana," Kompas, 5 December 2003.
41. According to a survey conducted in late 2003 by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) some 60.3 percent of 2,160 respondents (from 372 villages and cities in 32 provinces) preferred Soeharto's New Order political system to the current one. Only 25.2 percent of respondents had the opposite view. A separate survey a month earlier by Charney Research of New York and AC Nielsen Indonesia and commissioned by The Asia Foundation resulted in a similar outcome: 53 percent of eligible voters in the 2004 elections "preferred a strong leader like former president Soeharto, even if this meant that rights and freedoms would be reduced" (see Moch N. Kurniawan, "Polls to disappoint reformists," The Jakarta Post, 23 December 2003).
42. See also Effendi Gazali, "SARS dan Politik Nostalgi," Kompas, 27 December 2003.
43. These processes are detailed in Robison and Hadiz, Reorganising Power.
44. Henk Schulte Nordholt, "A Genealogy of Violence," in Roots of Violence in Indonesia, ed. Freek Colombijn and Lindbald J. Thomas (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 2002), 33-61;
45. Loren Ryter, "Pemuda Pancasila: The Last Loyalist Free Men of Suharto's Order?," Indonesia 66 (October 1998): 45-73.
46. We do not include the NGO and student activists in our case studies, despite the salience they continue to enjoy in many analyses of the fall of the New Order authoritarianism. Politically oriented NGOs and student activists played an important role when political parties were seriously emasculated during much of the New Order era, and the general population had no representation. Once political parties reclaimed their autonomy in 1999, many of these NGOs became redundant and appeared to be a spent force, as also occurred in Thailand under Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
47. A similar office, called the Ministry of Communication and Information, was established soon after Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri succeeded Abdurahman Wahid, who was impeached in 2001. Compared to the old Department of Information, this new ministry has much less power and carries far fewer political responsibilities.
48. P. Bambang Wisudo, "Bulan Madu Pers Telah Berakhir," Kompas, 9 February 2000.
49. Ariel Heryanto and Stanley Yoseph Adi, "Industrialized Media in Democratizing Indonesia," in Changing Times: ASEAN States in Transition, ed. Russell Hiang-Khng Heng (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2002), 47-82.
50. Jose Manuel Tesoro, "Indonesia: Learning the Ropes of Press Freedom," UNESCO Courier, 2 February 2000, 43-5;
51. Muninggar Sri Saraswati, "Press Freedom Eroding in RI: RSE" The Jakarta Post, 28 October 2004.
52. Chris Lydgate, Lee's Law: How Singapore Crushes Dissent (Melbourne: Scribe Publications, 2003).
53. M. Taufiqurrahman,"'Tempo' Magazine Still Standing Tall Despite Efforts to Topple It," The Jakarta Post, 28 January 2004.
54. For more details, see Ariel Heryanto, "Public Intellectuals, Media and Democratization," in Heryanto and Mandal, eds. Challenging Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia, especially 41-7.
55. For the events in 1994, see Yasuo Hanazaki, "The Indonesian Press in the Era of Keterbukaan," unpublished dissertation (Department of Asian Languages and Studies, Monash University, 1996), chapter 6, 199-252;
56. and Heryanto, "Indonesian Middle-class Opposition in the 1990s," especially 245-53.
57. Krishna Sen and David Hill, Media, Culture and Politics in Indonesia (Melboure: Oxford University Press, 2000);
58. Angela Romano, Politics and the Press in Indonesia: Understanding an Evolving Political Culture (London and New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003).
59. Interview with J. Anto, media activist, Medan, 17 July 2002;
60. interview with Jalil Latuconsina, publisher, Buletin Sapujagat, Surabaya, 13 July 2003.
61. Personal communication with Stanley Y. Adi (Jakarta, June 2003), a cofounder of the AJI (Aliansi Jurnalis Independent, Alliance of Independent Journalists) and a regular instructor for short-term, in-house training of AJI local branches across the country.
62. Adi Yulianto, "Gerakan Pengawasan Media Massa: Kasus KIPPAS, LKM, dan MWCC," in Gerakan Demokrasi di Indonesia Pasca-Soebarto, ed. A.E. Priyono, Stanley Adi Prasetyo, and Olle Tornquist (Jakarta: Demos, 2003), 335-63.
63. But ownership of electronic media has been restricted to the state and its officials, and to a few well-connected families.
64. Duncan McCargo, Politics and the Press in Thailand: Media Machinations (Bangkok: Garuda Press, 2000), 6-7.
65. Paul Tickell, "Free from What? Responsible to Whom? The Problem of Democracy and the Indonesian Press," in Democracy in Indonesia 1950s and 1990s, ed. David Bourchier and John Legge (Clayton: Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, 1990), 182-89.
66. Sheila Coronel, "Lords of the Press," The Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism Magazine 5, no. 2 (1999).
67. Daniel Dhakidae, "The State, the Rise of Capital and the Fall of Political Journalism: Political Economy of the Indonesian News Industry," PhD diss. (Cornell University, 1991).
68. For details, see World Bank, "Decentralizing Indonesia," Report no. 26191-IND (East Asia Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit, 2003).
69. World Bank Group, "Decentralization Net," http:// www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/decentralization/Different.htm; no date.
70. World Bank Group, "How We Work with Civil Society," http:// Inweb18.worldbank.org/ECA/eca.nsf/Initiatives/ A98CDE16184FEDFC85256BD6004F486F?OpenDocument; no date.
71. USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development), "Transition to a Prospering and Democratic Indonesia," http://www.usaid.gov/id/ docs-csp2k04.html; no date.
72. Hadiz, " Reorganising Political Power in Indonesia."
73. Vedi R. Hadiz, "Decentralisation and Democracy in Indonesia: A Critique of Neo-Institutionalist Perspectives," Development and Change 35, no. 4 (2004): 697-718.
74. A manager of foreign company operating in Kalimantan testified to the effect that in the past one had to bribe one official in Jakarta to get things done. Now one has to bribe three hundred officials, but nothing gets done (from the conference on "Natural Resources in Indonesia: The Economic, Political and Environmental Challenges," hosted by the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, 24-25 September 2004).
75. Kompas, 27 November 2001.
76. Gary F. Bell, "The New Indonesian Laws relating to Local Autonomy: Good Intentions, Confusing Laws," Asian-Pacific Law and Policy Journal 2, no. 1 (2001): 1-45.
77. Vedi R. Hadiz, "Indonesian Local Party Politics: A Site of Resistance to Neo-Liberal Reform," Critical Asian Studies 36, no. 4 (2004): 615-36.
78. Michael S. Malley, "New Rules, Old Structures and the Limits of Democratic Decentralisation," in Local Power and Politics in Indonesia: Democratisation and Decentralisation, ed. Ed Aspinall and Greg Fealy (Canberra: Australian National University and institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2003), 102-116.
79. Benedict Anderson, "Murder and Progress in Modern Siam," New Left Review 181 (May/June 1990): 33-48.
80. Paul D. Hutchcroft, "Oligarchs and Cronies in the Philippine State: The Politics of Patrimonial Plunder," World Politics 43 (April 1991): 414-50.
81. See, for example: Surin Maisrikrod, "Changing Forms of Democracy in Asia? Some Observations of the Thai and Philippine Constitutions," Asian Studies Review 23, no. 3 (1999): 355-73.
82. ADB (Asian Development Bank), "Governance in Thailand: Challenges, Issues and Prospects," April 1999, http://www.eldis.org/static/ DOC7222.htm.
83. See Hadiz, Workers and the State.
84. Vedi R. Hadiz, "Changing State-Labour Relations in Indonesia and Malaysia and the 1997 Crisis," in Heryanto and Mandal, eds., Challenging Authoritarianism, 90-116.
85. Kompas, 23 June 2001.
86. The Jakarta Post, 21 September 2000.
87. Interview with M. Yamin, Jakarta, 18 December 2000.
88. Donni Edwin, "Politik Gerakan Buruh: Kasus FNPBI dan KPS," in Gerakan Demokrasi di Indonesia Pasca-Soebarto, ed. A.E. Priyono, Stanley Adi Prasetyo, and Olle Tornquist (Jakarta: Demos, 2003), 100-29.
89. Andrew Brown, "Locating Working Class Power," in Political Change in Thailand: Democracy and Participation, ed. Kevin Hewison (London: Routledge, 1997), 163-78.
90. Ji Giles Ungpakorn, Thailand: Class Struggle in an Era of Economic Crisis (Hong Kong: Asia Monitor Resource Center, 1999), 4.
91. "Eggy Mengejar Popularitas," Xpos, No. 18/III/29 Mei-4 Juni 2000.
92. Jane Hutchison, "Export Opportunities: Unions in the Philippine Garments Industry," in Organising Labour in Globalising Asia, ed. Jane Hutchison and Andrew Brown (London: Routledge, 2001), 71-89.
93. See Andrew Brown, Labour, Politics, and the State in Industrializing Thailand (London: Routledge Curzon, 2004).
94. Interview with former workers of PT Tatsumi Seruni Indonesia, East Java, 18 July 2003.
95. Various interviews with workers in East Java, Central Java, and North Sumatra, since 2000.
96. Personal communication with Munir, a cofounder of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, in Melbourne, March 2000. (Note: Munir was murdered in September 2003.)
97. It would be a useful exercise now to reexamine Anderson's analysis of elections in the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia, especially given the rise of Thaksin in Thailand and the fall of the New Order in Indonesia. See Benedict R. Anderson, "Elections and Participation in Three Southeast Asian Countries," in The Politics of Elections in Southeast Asia, ed. R.H. Taylor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 12-33.
98. See Philip J. Eldridge, Non-Government Organizations and Democratic Participation in Indonesia (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1995);
99. Bob S. Hadiwinata, The Politics of NGOs in Indonesia: Developing Democracy and Managing a Movement (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003);
100. Heryanto and Mandal, eds., Challenging Authoritarianism.
101. Carmel Budiardjo, "Indonesia: Mass Extermination and the Consolidation of Authoritarian Power," in Western State Terrorism, ed. A. George (New York: Routledge, 1991), 180-211;
102. Julie Southwood and Patrick Flanagan, Indonesia: Law, Propaganda and Terror (London: Zed Press, 1983).
103. Ariel Heryanto, "Where Communism Never Dies," International Journal of Cultural Studies 2, no. 2 (1999): 147-77.
104. See Boudreau, "Diffusing Democracy?";
105. Hadiwinata, The Politics of NGOs;
106. Hedman, "Contesting State and Civil Society."
107. See Anja Jetschje, "Linking the Unlinkable? International Norms and Nationalism in Indonesia and the Philippines," in The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change, ed. Thomas Risse, Stephen C. Ropp, and Kathryn Sikkink (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 134-71.
108. Also see Douglas Ramage, Politics in Indonesia: Democracy, Islam and the Ideology of Tolerance (London: Routledge, 1995).
109. Joel Rocamora, Breaking Through: The Struggle within the Communist Party of the Philippines (Pasig City: Anvil, 1994).
110. Chris Baker, "Thailand's Assembly of the Poor: Background, Drama, Reaction," South East Asia Research 8, no. 1 (2000): 5-29.
111. Boudreau, "Diffusing Democracy?"
112. Hedman, "Contesting State and Civil Society."
113. Randolf S. David, "Re-democratization in the Wake of the 1986 People Power Revolution: Errors and Dilemmas," Kasarinlan 11, nos. 3 and 4 (1996): 5-20.
114. Ben Reid, "The Philippine Democratic Uprising and the Contradictions of Neoliberalism: EDSA II" Third World Quarterly 22, no. 5 (2001): 777-93.
115. Somroutai Sapsomboon, "Democratic Reforms Create Absolutism," The Nation, 17 November 2003, 5A.
116. Uhlin, Indonesia and the "Third Wave of Democratization".
117. Jetschke, "Linking the Unlinkable?"
118. See Uhlin, Indonesia and the "Third Wave of Democratization".
119. Crouch, Economic Change, Social Structure and Political System.
120. Hedman, "Contesting State and Civil Society," updates Crouch's analysis, and supplements Crouch's strongly politico-economic approach with a serious consideration of the "institution of civil religion."
121. Moore, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy.
122. Kevin Hewison "Pathways to Recovery: Bankers, Business and Nationalism in Thailand," Working Papers Series no. 1 (Southeast Asia Research Centre, City University of Hong Kong, 2001).
123. Kevin Hewison "Pathways to Recovery: Bankers, Business and Nationalism in Thailand," Working Papers Series no. 1 (Southeast Asia Research Centre, City University of Hong Kong, 2001).
124. Sidel, Capital, Coercion and Crime.
125. Daniel Arghiros, Democracy, Development, and Decentralization in Provincial Thailand (Richmond: Curzon, 2001).
126. See Robison and Hadiz, Reorganising Power.