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Abstract
As Egypt and Tunisia begin difficult democratic transitions, comparative political scientists have pointed to the world's largest Muslim nation, Indonesia, as a role model. Seen as a stand-out exception from the global recession of democracy in the pre-2011 period, Indonesia has been praised as an example of a stable post-authoritarian polity. But a closer look at Indonesia's record in recent years reveals that its democratization is stagnating. As this article demonstrates, there have been several attempts to roll back reforms introduced in the late 1990s and early 2000s. While not all of these attempts have been successful, Indonesia's democratic consolidation is now frozen at 2005–2006 levels. However, the reason for this democratic stasis, the article argues, is not related to Diamond's notion of societal dissatisfaction with bad post-authoritarian governance. Opinion polls clearly show continued support for democracy despite citizen disgruntlement over the effectiveness of governance. Instead, I contend that anti-reformist elites are the main forces behind the attempted roll back, with civil society emerging as democracy's most important defender. This insight, in turn, questions the wisdom of the decision by foreign development agencies – in Indonesia, but other countries as well – to reduce their support for non-governmental organizations and instead intensify their cooperation with government.
Notes
Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2011.
Carothers, ‘Stepping Back from Democratic Pessimism’, 6. After the events in Egypt in early 2011, Carothers described post-Suharto Indonesia as a role model for post-Mubarak Egypt. See Carothers, ‘Egypt and Indonesia’.
Diamond, ‘Stemming the Democratic Recession’.
Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2010.
Mujani and Liddle, ‘Muslim Indonesia's Secular Democracy’; Mujani and Liddle, ‘Voters and the New Indonesian Democracy’.
Barack Obama, ‘Speech at the University of Indonesia’.
Freedom House uses a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 being the best and 7 the worst score.
In its ‘Countries at the Crossroads’ reports, Freedom House uses a different scale, with 0 representing weakest and 7 representing strongest performance. In this scale, Indonesia's civil liberty scores declined from 3.70 in 2006 to 3.58 in 2010. See Freedom House, Countries at the Crossroads 2006: Indonesia; and Freedom House, Countries at the Crossroads 2010: Indonesia.
The Polity IV Project uses a scale of minus 10 (hereditary monarchy) to plus 10 (consolidated democracy). See Polity IV, ‘Country Report Indonesia 2008’.
Economist Intelligence Unit, The World in 2007; Economist Intelligence Unit, Index of Democracy 2008.
World Bank, ‘Worldwide Governance Indicators’.
Heydemann, Upgrading Authoritarianism in the Arab World.
Diamond, ‘Stemming the Democratic Recession’.
Friedman, ‘The Democratic Recession’.
Carothers, ‘Stepping Back from Democratic Pessimism’, 12.
Kapstein and Converse, The Fate of Young Democracies.
Lum et al., China's Foreign Aid Activities in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
The research for this article was carried out within the framework of a research project funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC). It included intensive literature research and several field trips to Indonesia in April, May, June, August, September, November and December 2010. Many Indonesian politicians and non-governmental organization (NGO) figures were interviewed for this project, but a significant number of them declined to be identified.
Diamond, ‘The Democratic Rollback’, 42.
Robison and Hadiz, Reorganising Power in Indonesia; Hadiz, Localising Power in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia; Boudreau, ‘Elections, Repression and Authoritarian Survival in Indonesia and the Philippines’; Slater, ‘Indonesia's Accountability Trap’.
Hefner, Civil Islam.
Hadiz, Localising Power in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia, 28.
The favourite catch phrase of this conservative group has been that Indonesian democracy is now ‘too much’ [kebablasan]. This term is typically used by conservative elites to explain acts of grassroots violence or other phenomena they view as caused by excessive democratization, such as pornography. See ‘Hasyim Muzadi: Amuk Masa Mojokerto karena Demokrasi Kebablasan’, Suarasurabaya.net, May 23, 2010.
Aspinall, ‘Indonesia: The Irony of Success’, 32.
Aspinall, ‘Indonesia: The Irony of Success’.
Due to different budgeting regulations in 2004 and 2009, it is difficult to establish the exact extent of the cost reductions. But Vice-President Kalla stated in November 2007 that ‘every possible means to save money must be applied’. He continued that ‘there's no need to buy any devices because everything is still there – the KPU doesn't have to buy computers’. See ‘Kalla Minta Anggaran Pemilu 2009 Diturunkan’, Tempointeraktif, November 2, 2007.
Schmidt, ‘Indonesia's 2009 Elections’, 105.
Ibid., 119.
Trebilcock and Chitalkar, ‘From Nominal to Substantive Democracy’, 191.
Ibid.
‘Revisi UU Pemda Usulkan Pilkada Gubernur Dihapus’, Detik.com, December 4, 2009.
Interview with a deputy speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly, Jakarta, April 15, 2010.
Interview with a member of parliament, Jakarta, February 11, 2010.
Diamond, ‘Indonesia's Place in Global Democracy’, 48.
Ibid.
van Klinken, ‘Indonesian Politics in 2008’.
World Bank, ‘Worldwide Governance Indicators’.
‘Politisi PD Ancam Bubarkan KPK’, Detik.com, April 25, 2010.
‘DPR Cenderung Dukung Polri, Harusnya Bibit dan Chandra Juga Dipanggil’, Detik.com, November 6, 2009.
Despite the increasing public outrage over the case, Yudhoyono had initially argued that he could not intervene in police affairs because this could be seen as presidential meddling in the law enforcement and justice sector. However, this explanation was dismissed as artificial by Yudhoyono's critics, who correctly maintained that the president could have easily stopped the investigation at an early stage if he had intended to do so. Indeed, after Yudhoyono gave in to the pressure, set up an independent investigation team and ‘recommended’ that the case be dropped, it took only days for the police to fall into line: the general who initiated the case was removed and put on trial for corruption, and earlier police claims of ‘strong evidence’ against the KPK commissioners were no longer repeated.
Lembaga Survei Indonesia, Ketidakpercayaan Publik Pada Lembaga Pemberantasan Korupsi, 15.
Swain, ‘Democracy, Minority Rights and Conflict Prevention in Asia’, 227.
Setara Institute, Negara Menyangkal, 11.
‘Attacks on Churches Rising’, Singapore Straits Times, July 26, 2010; ‘Christian Rights Group Urges Indonesia to Protect Religious Freedom’, Christian Post, September 24, 2010.
‘Indonesian Radical Groups “Can Help Security”’, Jakarta Globe, October 7, 2010.
Sherlock, ‘Parties and Decision-Making in the Indonesian Parliament’.
Human Rights Watch, Prosecuting Political Aspiration.
Government Regulation 77/2007 on Provincial Flags and Logos, Article 6A.
Carothers, ‘Stepping Back from Democratic Pessimism’, 11.
Lembaga Survei Indonesia, Evaluasi Kinerja Pemerintahan SBY-Boediono, 14, 17.
Carothers, ‘Stepping Back from Democratic Pessimism’, 12.
Ibid., 11.
Ibid., 11.
‘Politicians on Election Bodies Would “Prevent” Abuses’, Jakarta Globe, November 18, 2010.
‘Menimbang Ulang Pilkada Langsung’, Radar Banten, February 24, 2010.
‘Kritik Pedas Fahri Hamzah untuk KPK’, Okezone, August 30, 2010.
Linz and Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation, 7. Civil society, therefore, includes non-state actors such as NGOs, religious organizations and the media, to name only the most important ones.
Antlöv, Brinkerhoff, and Rapp, ‘Civil Society Organizations and Democratic Reform’.
See the leaflet at http://www.cetro.or.id/newweb/images/Petisi%20CETRO%20preview.jpg (accessed April 17, 2011).
‘Keep KPU Free of Politicians: Observers’, Jakarta Globe, May 14, 2010.
‘Keep Indonesia's Political Parties Out of Poll Bodies: Survey’, Jakarta Globe, October 3, 2010.
Interview with Hadar Gumay, Denpasar, November 12, 2010.
‘Menimbang Ulang Pilkada Langsung’, Radar Banten, February 24, 2010.
‘Mendagri Gamawan Fauzi: Belum Final, Pilgub oleh DPRD’, http://www.depdagri.go.id/news/2010/06/16/mendagri-gamawan-fauzi-belum-final-pilgub-oleh-dprd (accessed April 17, 2011).
‘TII: KPK Sedang Dilemahkan Secara Sistematis’, Detik.com, September 15, 2009.
‘Wiretapping Bill Evidence to Weaken KPK’, Jakarta Post, August 12, 2009.
‘KPK will be ‘Half-paralyzed by Wiretapping Ban’, Jakarta Post, June 29, 2009.
‘SBY: KPK Harusnya Bewenang Lakukan Penuntutan dan Penyadapan’, Detik.com, September 17, 2009.
‘Indonesia Fourth Biggest Facebook User in the World’, Jakarta Post, June 1, 2010. In July 2010, Indonesia had already 26 million users and moved into 3rd spot in the ranking of countries with the most users.
‘Pendukung Bibit-Chandra di FB Tembus 1 Juta!’, Detik.com, November 7, 2010.
Lembaga Survei Indonesia, Ketidakpercayaan Publik Pada Lembaga Pemberantasan Korupsi, 20.
Aspinall, ‘Assessing Democracy Assistance’, 21.
Ibid.
See document at http://unrco.or.id/files/JakartaCommitment.pdf (accessed April 17, 2011).
Rakner and Wang, ‘Governance Assessments and the Paris Declaration’.
Hoffman and Santucci, The Democratic Recession, 17–18.
Aspinall, ‘Assessing Democracy Assistance’, 6.
Mietzner, ‘Indonesia's 2009 Elections’, 18.
Mietzner, ‘Indonesia's 2009 Elections’.
The Indonesian research and advocacy institute Demos, in cooperation with the Norwegian political scientist Olle Törnquist, has conducted a number of studies since the early 2000s that highlighted the elitist isolation of Jakarta-based NGOs on the one hand and their inability to have concrete policy impact on the other. The solutions proposed by Demos include better coordination between national and local NGOs and more civil society participation in formal politics. See, for instance, Nababan et al., Towards an Agenda for Meaningful HR-based Democracy; Prasetyo, Priyono, and Törnquist, Indonesia's Post-Soeharto Democracy Movement; and Priyono et al., Making Democracy Meaningful: Problems and Options in Indonesia.
Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2011.
These countries are Thailand and the Philippines.
Hadiz, Localising Power in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia
‘Global Views of USA Improve’, BBC World Services Poll, April 2008.
‘Global Views of United States Improve While Other Countries Decline’, BBC World Services Poll, April 2010.
‘Finding the Link between Democracy and Welfare’, Jakarta Post, March 31, 2006.
Hoffman and Santucci, ‘The Democratic Recession’, 7.
Carothers, ‘Stepping Back from Democratic Pessimism’, 6.
World Bank, ‘Worldwide Governance Indicators’.
This was the 1997 score. See Diamond, ‘Indonesia's Place in Global Democracy’, 31.
Aspinall and Mietzner, ‘From Silkworms to Bungled Bailout’.