Indonesian politics in 2011: democratic regression and Yudhoyono's regal incumbency

Abstract

In 2011, a number of trends in Indonesian politics became clearer. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) has not become a more reformist and risk-taking president in his second term, contrary to the hopes of many, but has rather become more cautious, aloof and regal in style. He is irked by criticism and dislikes any disturbance to the authority of his rule. The political elite, often in concert with the SBY government, pushed through a range of democratically regressive measures, including allowing politicians to be appointed to the Elections Commission. The malaise within the party system deepened, with less than a quarter of the electorate professing any party affiliation. Most Islamic parties slid closer to the political periphery, and the largest one, PKS, was beset by controversy. Government and community responses to a brutal attack on the Ahmadiyah sect in early 2011 showed the limits of Indonesia's much lauded religious tolerance.

Keywords:

• democratic regression
• political Islam
• religious intolerance
• corruption
• presidential incumbency

Acknowledgements

This is a revised version of a paper presented to the 29th Indonesia Update conference, held at the Australian National University, Canberra, on 30 September 2011. The author would like to thank Ed Aspinall, Marcus Mietzner and Ken Ward for valuable comments on an earlier draft. Douglas Ramage, the Managing Director of BowerGroupAsia's Indonesia office, acted as discussant of the paper presented at the conference; some of his comments are appended in box 1 at the end of this paper.

Notes

¹See, for example, Freedom House's global democracy rankings, which classify Indonesia as the only full democracy in Southeast Asia. The 2011 rankings are available at <http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=594>.

²See Mietzner (2011); see also EIU (2008).

³Much of the material for this section is drawn from confidential interviews with senior officials and politicians in Jakarta conducted during the first half of 2011.

⁴‘UKP4: ministries with “red marks” evenly distributed’, Indonesia Today, 28/9/2011.

⁵‘SBY controls “lucrative” posts’, Jakarta Post, 19/10/2011.

⁶‘Empat alasan kepercayaan public menurun terhadap KPU [Four reasons for falling public trust in KPU]’, Media Indonesia, 7/8/2011.

⁷‘House corners KPK, threatens its dismissal’, Jakarta Post, 4/10/2011.

⁸‘KPU wajib konsultasi dengan DPR [KPU obliged to consult parliament]’, Kompas,10/8/2011; ‘House passes KPU bill into law’, Jakarta Post, 21/9/2011; ‘Peran partai politik dominan; UU segera diuji [The dominant role of political parties; law soon to be tested]’, Kompas, 21/9/2011.

⁹‘Kemandirian KPU harus dijaga [KPU's independence must be guarded]’, Kompas,6/4/2011.

¹⁰‘Kursi tidak sah di DPR [Parliamentary seats invalid]’, Kompas, 14/9/2011.

¹¹‘Partai harus biayai calon kepala daerah [Parties have to fund district head candidates]’, Kompas, 25/1/2011; ‘Wakil kepala daerah ditunjuk kepala daerah terpilih dari PNS [Deputy district heads appointed from bureaucracy by elected district heads]’, Jawa Pos Online, 26/4/2010.

¹²PDI–P: Partai Demokrasi Indonesia-Perjuangan (Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle); Golkar: Partai Golongan Karya (Golkar Party); PKB: Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (National Awakening Party); PPP: Partai Persatuan Pembangunan (United Development Party); PAN: Partai Amanat Nasional (National Mandate Party).

¹³‘Partai masih beda pendapat [Parties still of different views]’, Kompas, 7/1/2011; ‘Ancaman ambang batas [The threat of threshold limits]’, Kompas, 13/9/2011.

¹⁴‘SBY's commitment to graft eradication questioned’, Jakarta Post, 29/6/2009; ‘Indonesian president will not interfere in corruption fighters’ detention’, Jakarta Globe, 31/10/2009;‘President's inaction only hurts him’, Jakarta Post, 13/11/2009.

¹⁵‘Dirjen tahu soal uang 1.5 milyar [Director general knows about the 1.5 billion issue]’, Kompas, 13/9/2011; ‘Minister, budget committee leaders face KPK questioning’, Jakarta Post, 4/10/2011.

¹⁶‘Graft suspect implicates Democratic Party politician’, Jakarta Post, 29/4/2011; ‘Kaderberulah, Demokrat babak belur [Cadres misbehave, Democrats black and blue]’, Gatra,22/6/2011.

¹⁷‘Karena Nazar tak mau sendiri [Because Nazar does not want to go alone]’, Tempo,30/5/2011; ‘Nazaruddin tak ingin pulang [Nazaruddin does not want to return home]’,Kompas, 2/7/2011.

¹⁸‘Nazaruddin membangkang, Demokrat gamang [Nazaruddin objects, Democrats in a faint]’, Gatra, 8/6/2011; ‘Kader berulah, Demokrat babak belur [Cadres misbehave, Democrats are black and blue]’, Gatra, 22/6/2011.

¹⁹‘Kader berulah, Demokrat babak belur [Cadres misbehave, Democrats are black and blue]’, Gatra, 22/6/2011.

²⁰‘Indonesian fugitive arrested in Colombia’, Straits Times, 9/8/2011.

²¹‘PKS legislator refuses to say where fugitive wife is hiding’, Jakarta Globe, 30/5/2011;‘Sakit lupa ingat belanja [Amnesia but remembers to shop]’, Gatra, 8/6/2011.

²²‘Top PKS politicians face embezzlement allegations’, Jakarta Globe, 15/3/2011; ‘Presiden PKS dilaporkan ke BK DPR [PKS president reported to parliament's Ethics Board]’, Republika, 17/3/2011; ‘Adil di sini, sejahtera di sana [Just here, prosperous there]’, Tempo,28/3/2011; ‘Urgently needed: truly clean and caring party’, Jakarta Post, 15/4/2011.

²³See, for example, ‘Deciphering the influence of PKS puppet-master Hilmi’, Jakarta Post,30/3/2011.

²⁴‘Arifinto: paripurna sudah dalam kondisi jenuh [Arifinto: I was already fed up with the plenary session]’, Media Indonesia Online, 8/4/2011; ‘PKS member trapped by anti-porn stance’, Jakarta Post, 9/4/2011; ‘Fotografer punya 60 frame foto Arifinto nonton video porno [Photographer has 60 photo frames of Arifinto watching porn]’, detikNews, 10/4/2011.

²⁵‘PKS porn scandal lawmaker still in house’, Jakarta Globe, 8/9/2011.

²⁶‘Nasir Jamil: waduh … PKS ancur lagi [Nasir Jamil: My … PKS ruined again]’, MediaIndonesia, 9/4/2011.

²⁷‘Impor renyah “daging berjanggut” [Soft and crunchy imports of “bearded meat”]’, Tempo, 14/3/2011; ‘Pemain daging Partai Sejahtera [Prosperous Party's meat players]’, Tempo, 14/3/2011; ‘Partai putih di pusaran impor daging [Pure party at centre of meat imports]’, Tempo, 6/6/2011.

²⁸See, for example, Dhume (2005).

²⁹‘Bogor pressed once again to re-open church’, Jakarta Globe, 15/6/2011; ‘Churches can't be built in streets with Islamic names: Bogor mayor ’, Jakarta Globe, 19/8/2011.

³⁰‘Tahun kelam beragama [Gloomy year to be religious]’, Kompas, 22/12/2011; ‘Wave of religious intolerance intensifies’, Jakarta Globe, 30/12/2011.

³¹‘Kebebasan beragama di Indonesia dinilai suram [Religious freedom in Indonesia seenas bleak]’, Kompas, 19/12/2010.

³²For more information on Ahmadiyah in Indonesia, see Ahmad (2007) and Crouch(2011).

³³Extracts from the video, most carrying warnings of their graphic nature, can be found on YouTube: <http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DeGAycEJeq5o>.

³⁴The trial was itself controversial. One of the judges repeatedly berated the Ahmadi accused and made critical remarks about his faith, prompting Human Rights Watch Asia to refer the matter to the Judicial Commission. Footage of the trial can be found on YouTube:<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ryhfl_no3I>. Upon handing down the final verdict, the senior judge defended the light sentences given to the attackers, saying that the vigilantes had been provoked by the Ahmadis and had shown remorse. Little remorse was evident, however, when the attackers were released from gaol and greeted by cheering crowds. See ‘Hakim sidang Cikeusik: vonis pidana sudah patut dan adil [Cikeusik case judge: criminal verdict is fitting and just]’, Republika Online, 28/7/2011; ‘Cikeusik verdicts handed down with disbelief’, Jakarta Globe, 29/7/2011.

³⁵‘Menkumham: jangan langsung simpulkan insiden Cikeusik langgar HAM [Justice and Human Rights Minister: don't immediately conclude the Cikeusik incident breaches human rights]’, detikNews, 8/2/2011.

³⁶‘Mendagri rembukan dengan FPI cs [Home Affairs Minister confers with FPI et al.]’,detikNews, 16/2/2011.

³⁷‘Menag: operasi sajadah untuk Ahmadiyah ajakan persuasive [Religious Affairs Min-ister: prayer mat operation for Ahmadiyah is a persuasive offer]’, detikNews, 15/3/2011;‘Indonesia denies forced religious conversions’, Jakarta Globe, 16/3/2011.

³⁸‘Presiden: cari pihak yang bertanggungjawab [President: find those responsible]’,Kompas, 8/2/2011.

³⁹‘Pelarangan Ahmadiyah di daerah dianggap sesuai [Ahmadiyah bans in regions regarded as appropriate]’, Republika Online, 21/3/2011.

⁴⁰FPI ancam gulingkan Yudhoyono [FPI threatens to overthrow Yudhoyono]’, TempoInteraktif, 11/2/2011.

⁴¹‘Plot to undermine Indonesian president’, Al-Jazeera, 22/3/2011, <http://english.aljazeera.net/video/asia-pacific/2011/03/2011322402237872.html>; ‘Retired generals using Islamic groups in attempt to topple president: report’, Jakarta Globe, 22/3/2011.

⁴²‘SBY takes offence at protesting buffalo’, Jakarta Post, 3/2/2010.

⁴³‘Shiites fear they are the next target’, Jakarta Globe, 14/3/2011.