Progress and Caution: Indonesia's Democracy

Abstract

Indonesians have political power, freedom of voice, and an array of civil and political rights that fifteen years ago would have been unimaginable. It is undeniable how much positive change has occurred in such a short amount of time. Indonesia's experience, like other countries in Asia, serves as an example of both the successes in democratization and the difficulties and challenges in consolidating democracy. This article looks at the status of democracy in Indonesia today. It asks how well democracy has been consolidated in Indonesia and what the continued challenges are. It focuses specifically on four significant challenges: corruption, military abuses, protection of minority rights, and Islamic radicalism.

Keywords:

• Indonesia
• democracy
• democratic consolidation
• Islam
• corruption
• minority rights

Notes

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2. Terry Karl, “Imposing Consent? Electoralism versus Democratization in El Salvador,” in Elections and Democratization in Latin America, 1980–1985, eds. Paul Drake and Eduardo Silva (San Diego: Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies, Center for US/Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego, 1986) 9–36.

3. Among the better known of the works on democracy are Larry Diamond, Juan Linz, and Seymour Martin Lipset, eds., Democracy in Developing Countries, vols. 2, 3, 4 (Boulder, Co.; Lynne Rienner, 1989); Joseph Schumpeter Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1943; Robert Dahl, Dilemmas of Pluralist Democracy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982).

4. Fareed Zakaria. “The Rise of Illiberal Democracies” Foreign Affairs 76, no. 6 (1997): 22.

5. Timothy Mitchell. “The Limits of the State”. American Political Science Review 85 (1991): 77–96.

6. For this debate, see Gabriel A. Almond, “The Return to the State,” and Eric Nordlinger, “The Return to the State: Critiques,” The American Political Science Association Review 82 (1988): 853–885, and Timothy Mitchell, “The Limits of the State,”

7. Philippe C. Schmitter, “On Civil Society and the Consolidation of Democracy: Ten General Propositions and Nine Speculations about their Relation in Asian Societies,” (paper presented at an International Conference on Consolidating the Third Wave Democracies: Trends and Challenges, Taipei, August 27–30), and Larry Diamond, “Rethinking Civil Society: Toward Democratic Consolidation,” Journal of Democracy. 5, no. 3 (1994).

8. Diamond, “Rethinking Civil Society,” 7–11.

9. Material is drawn from an unpublished conference paper by Amy Freedman, “Civil Society, Moderate Islam, and Politics in Indonesia and Malaysia” (paper presented at the American Political Science Association meeting, Chicago, IL. August 30, 2007).

10. Vedi R. Hadiz “Decentralization and Democracy in Indonesia: A Critique of Neo-Institutionalist Perspectives,” Development and Change 35, no. 4 (2004): 697–718.

11. For more on decentralization, see Hadiz, “Decentralization and Democracy in Indonesia”; UNDP, “Ten Years of the Implementation of Indonesia's Decentralization: Reformulating the Role of the Province,” www.undp.or.id (accessed July 31, 2012), June 2009 and Michael Buehler, “Decentralization and Local Democracy in Indonesia: the Marginalization of the Public Sphere,” in Problems of Democratization in Indonesia, ed. Edward Aspinall and Marcus Mietzner (ISEAS: Singapore, 2010).

12. Definitions are spelled out by Transparency International Indonesia (http://www.ti.or.id/en/tools/12/).

13. For good information on this, see Transparency International Indonesia, 2008. “FAQ on Corruption” http://www.ti.or.id/en/tools/12. Access date July 27, 2010. CNN World, February 12, 2010.

14. Coren, 2010, 1–2.

15. “Breaking News: Susno Duadji Jailed for Corruption,” Jakarta Globe, March 24, 2011.

16. For more on corruption in Indonesia, see Michael Buehler, “Of Gecko's and Crocodiles: Evaluating Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Efforts” (presentation, Columbia University, Southeast Asia Seminar, Spring 2010).

17. Ina Parlina “Corruption watchdogs slam House plan to revise KPK law,” The Jakarta Post, April 24, 2011.

18. Peter Alford, “War Against Culture of Corruption,” The Australian, January 28, 2100.

19. The Bank Century scandal has also been a problem for this administration as the Bank received a significant government bailout and apparent favoritism from both the vice president and the finance minister. While neither official has been accused of breaking any laws, public perception of SBY and his allies has been severely tarnished.

20. Hadiz, 2004. “Decentralization and Democracy in Indonesia” p. 699, Buehler, 2010. “Decentralization and Local Democracy in Indonesia:”

21. Robert Hefner, Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000): 16.

22. Zachary Abuza. Militant Islam in Southeast Asia (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Press, 2003): 23.

23. Abuza, Militant Islam, 22–24.

24. For a good essay on the issue of weak states, see Joseph Chinyong Liow, “Internal Conflicts in Southeast Asia: The Nature, Legitimacy, and (Changing) Role of the State,” Asian Security 3, no. 2, (2007): 73–79.

25. Paul J. Carnegie, “The Politics of Indonesia's Islamic Identification,” Dialogue 4, no. 1 (2006): 1–24.

26. Salafism is linked to Hanbal 855AD. This is a purist tradition of Islam imported from the Middle East, and it is not typical of Islamic practice in Indonesia more generally.

27. Abuza, Militant Isalm, 141.

28. “Terrorism Mastermind Noordin Top Killed,” CBS News, March 9, 2010, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/17/ (accessed July 20, 2011).

29. “Indonesia: Jemaah Islamiyah's Current Status,” International Crisis Group Asia Briefing No. 63, May 3, 2007.

30. Sara Schonhardt, “Indonesia's youth groups try to counter military recruitment,” Christian Science Monitor, August 3, 2011.

31. Sidney Jones, “Three Strategies for Jihad and more Prevention Needed,” Tempo Magazine, April 6, 2011.

32. Thin Lei Win, “INTERVIEW-Indonesian jail corruption stokes extremism-analyst,” TrustLaw, July 14, 2011.

33. Zachary Abuza, “MMI Concludes its First Congress Since the Release of Abu Bakar Ba’asyir,” Counterterrorism Blog, http://counterterrorismblog.org/2006/07 (accessed July 27, 2006).

34. Abuza, “MMI.”.

35. Emily Rauhala, “Why Ba’asyir's Sentence Doesn't Spell the End of Extremism in Indonesia,” Time, June 16, 2100, http://globalspin.blogs.time.com (accessed July 29, 2011).

36. Paul J. Carnegie, “The Politics of Indonesia's Islamic Identification,” 16.

37. Michael Vatikiotis. “Why Indonesia Needs a New Politics,” International Herald Tribune, 2006, www.iht.com (accessed June 19, 2008).

38. “Indonesia: Revoke Provincial Decrees to Ban a Faith,” Human Rights Watch, March 15, 2011, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/03/15 (accessed July 29, 2011).

39. “Indonesia: Monitor Trials of Deadly Attack on Religious Minority,” Human Rights Watch, June 16, 2011, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/06/16 (accessed July 19, 2011).

40. Samarinda Alfitri, “Religious Liberty in Indonesia and the Rights of ‘Deviant’ Sects,” Asian Journal of Comparative Law, January (2008): 1–27.

41. Ibid.

42. Arghea Desfati Hapsari and Panca Nugraha, “Anti-ahmadi Pogrom alive and well,” The Jakarta Post, January 17, 2011.

43. “Indonesia: Implications of the Ahmadiyah Decree,” International Crisis Group, Asia Briefing No. 78, July 7, 2008.

44. Ibid, 11.

45. International Crisis Group (ICG). “Indonesia: Violence and Radical Muslims,” Asia Briefing No. 10, October 10, 2001.

46. ICG, July 7, 2008, 14, and Lynn Lee and Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja, “Indonesian Religious Tolerance Down,” Straits Times, December 19, 2008 (accessed December 29, 2008).

47. US Department of State, “Annual Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom,” May 2010: 255–266.

48. International Crisis Group, “Indonesian Jihadism: Small Groups, Big Plans,” Asia Report April 19, 2011.

49. International Crisis Group, “Indonesia: Tackling Radicalism in Poso,” Asia Briefing No. 75, January 22, 2008.

50. Julie Ray, “Indonesians Champion Religious Freedom,” Gallup Poll Briefing, June 20, 2008.

51. Sidney Jones, “‘Kristenisasi’ and intolerance: Another Look,” The Jakarta Post, January 19, 2011.

52. Human Rights Watch, “Indonesia: Protect Ahmadiyah Community From Violence,” February 2, 2011, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/02/02 (accessed July 25, 2011).

53. Human Rights Watch, “Indonesia Ensure Security in Religious Killings Trial,” April 19, 2011, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/04/19 (accessed July 25, 2011).

54. Niniek Karmini, Michael Holtz, and Matthew Pennington, “Victim of Indonesian Mob Attack Sent to Jail,” New York Times, August 15, 2011.

55. Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, Sri Yanuarti, and Mochamad Nurhasim, “Military Politics, Ethnicity and Conflict in Indonesia,” Human Security and Ethnicity (Oxford University, UK: Centre for Research on Inequality, 2009).

56. Aurel Croissant, Paul W. Chambers, and Philip Volkel, “Democracy, the Military and Security Sector Governance in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand,” 198.

57. Human Rights Watch, “Indonesia: US Resumes Military Assistance to Abusive Force,” July 22, 2010, http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/07/22 (accessed July 20, 2011).

58. Peter Gelling, “Reform keeps Indonesian military in check,” The New York Times, October 28, 2008.

59. Elaine Pearson, “Indonesian military gets away with torture,” Human Rights Watch, February 9, 2011.

60. Human Rights Watch, “World Report 2011: Indonesia,” World Report 2011 http://www.hrw.org/en/world-report-2011/indonesia (accessed July 31, 2012).

61. Ibid.

62. International Crisis Group, “Indonesian Papua: A Local Perspective on the Conflict,” Crisis Group Asia Briefing, July 19, 2007.

63. International Crisis Group, “Indonesia: Hope and Hard Reality in Papua,” Crisis Group Asia Briefing, August 22, 2011.

64. Human Rights Watch, “World Report 2011: Indonesia,” World Report 2011, http://www.hrw.org/en/world-report-2011/indonesia (accessed July 31, 2012).

65. Elaine Pearson, “Australia should take the lean on human rights in South-East Asia,” Human Rights Watch, January 19, 2010.

66. Jay Griffiths, “Indonesia's ‘slow motion genocide,’“ The Guardian, December 30, 2010.

67. Human Rights Watch, “Prosecuting Political Aspiration- Indonesia's Political Prisoners,” June 2010 http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/indonesia0610webwcover_0.pdf (accessed July 29, 2011).

68. Human Rights Watch, “Indonesia: Military Documents Reveal Unlawful Spying in Papua,” August 14, 2011, http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/08/14 (accessed September 1, 2011).

69. International Crisis Group, “Indonesia: Hope and Hard Reality in Papua,” Crisis Group Asia Briefing, August 22, 2011.

70. For excellent work on the military in Indonesia, see Democracy Under Stress: Civil-Military Relations in South and Southeast Asia, Paul Chambers and Aurel Croissant, eds. (Bangkok, Thailand: ISIS, 2010) and Aurel Croissant, Paul W. Chambers, and Philip Volkel, “Democracy, the Military and Security Sector Governance in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand” in The Crisis of Democratic Governance in Southeast Asia, ed. Croissant and Bunte (NY: Palgrave) 2011.

71. Marcus Mietzner (ed.), The Political Resurgence of the Military in Southeast Asia (NY: Routledge, 2011). And “The Political Marginalization of the Military in Indonesa,” ed. Marcus Mietzner.

72. Keohane and Milner, Internationalization, 16–17.

73. Henry S. Bienen and Mark Gersovitz, “Economic Stabilization, Conditionality, and Political Stability,” International Organization 39, no. 4 (1985): 747.

74. Ibid., 735.

75. Samuel J. Valenzuela, “Democratic Consolidation in Post-Transitional Setting: Notion, Process, and Facilitating Conditions,” in Issues in Democratic Consolidation: The New South American Democracies in Comparative Perspective, ed. S. Mainwaring, G. O’Donnell, and S. Valenzuela (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press), 1992, 57–104.

76. Andreas Schedler, “Measuring Democratic Consolidation,” Studies in Comparative International Development 36, no. 1 (2001): 66.

77. Ibid., 12 (pagination reflects Internet download of article).

78. In the case of Indonesia, there are certainly regional separatist movements in Aceh and West Papua, e.g., however, these forces are not attempting to take over and replace the national government.

79. Fareed Zakaria's interview with Lee Kwan Yew “Culture is Destiny.” Foreign Affairs, March/April (1994):109–127.

80. USAID and The Asia Foundation, an international NGO, work with the two largest Islamic organizations in Indonesia, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah to develop and nurture the values of freedom, religious tolerance, and pluralism. Activities include civic education, democracy training, and holding seminars and meetings on civil education and development course curriculum on civic education for use in religious schools from kindergarten all the way through the university level. Material on USAID and the Asia Foundation programs come from interviews with Robin Bush of TAF in August 2005, and from meeting with members of NU and Muhammadiyah also in August 2005. USAID information can also be found in “Muslim World Outreach and Engaging Muslim Civil Society,” USAID Summer Seminar Series 2004 Report, August 31, 2004, 3.

81. Saiful Mujani and R. William Liddle, “Politics, Islam, and Public Opinion” Journal of Democracy, 15, no. 1 (2004):109–123.

82. For examples of polling data, see Doh Chull Shin, “The Evolution of Popular Support for Democracy during Kim Young Sam's Government,” in Institutional Reform and Democratic Consolidation in Korea, ed. Diamond and Shin (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 2000): 233, Robert B. Albritton and Thawilwadee Bureekul, “Developing Democracy under a New Constitution in Thailand” (paper presented at the APSA national meeting, Philadelphia, PA, September 2003), and polling data from Castle Asia and Charney Research (www.charneyresearch.com).

83. Transparency International ranks countries based on levels of corruption. One hundred sixty-three countries are ranked on a scale of 1–10, with 1 being the most corrupt and 10 being the least corrupt. South Korea is ranked 42 and was rated as a 5.1; Malaysia, ranked 44 and earned a 5.0; Thailand appeared as 63 and was rated 3.6, and finally, Indonesia is listed as 130th on the list and earned a rating of 2.4. (Transparency International 2006 rankings, www.transparency.org/cpi 2006/2006/infocus/newsroom/home) (accessed March 25, 2008).

84. Samarinda Alfitri, “Religious Liberty in Indonesia and the Rights of ‘Deviant’ Sects,” Asian Journal of Comparative Law (2008): 1–27.