Dissecting the Attitudes of Political Science Students Towards Democracy and the 2004 Elections in Indonesia

Abstract

Students’ attitudes towards Indonesia's transition from an authoritarian era to democracy varied from strong support for the democratic transition to nostalgia for the authoritarian era's strong leadership and economic prosperity. A sample of 317 students from three Indonesian universities was asked to rate the importance of political, economic, legal and social democratic principles. In addition to concerns about corruption, economic decline and security, students differed significantly centring on the importance of legitimate elections, representation, tolerance, accountability, human rights and gender equality. The majority of students were pessimistic about the elections; paradoxically some students optimistic about the general elections rated democratic principles the least important. After discussing the implications, political attitudes about democracy and elections were related to cognitive consistency and dissonance theory.

Keywords:

• Democracy
• Elections
• Authoritarian
• Corruption
• Cognitive Dissonance

Notes

1. Facing mounting political pressure and rising public discontent, Sukarno adopted what he called a system of ‘guided democracy’ in an attempt to preserve his authority.

2. The communist purges swept throughout Indonesia, with concentrations of violence in Java and Bali, leading to estimates of up to 500,000 fatalities (of suspected or real communists) over a period of one year.

3. Prior to these elections, J. B. Habibie served as caretaker president. He was a close associate of Suharto, although he did push for reforms and in some aspects embraced the spirit of democracy,

4. Although the focus was on Jakarta, on 11 May 1998 Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Central Java, was host to the largest student demonstration the country had seen for 20 years (McRae, 1999).

5. Interview with faculty member from Gajah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on 2 March 2004.

6. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono approved the lifting of subsidies on refined petroleum products commonly referred to as Bahan Bakar Minyak (BBM) leading to substantial price increases and public outcry (Tyson, 2005b). Previous leaders have also tried to push ahead with this reform, but buckled under public and political pressure. SBY's ‘Bitter Pill’ speech acknowledged the short-term difficulties this new policy would cause, but also appealed to the public to accept such changes as in the long-term national interest. He also introduced a compensation policy for poor families across the archipelago, which resembles the makings of a welfare system.

7. These were the University of Indonesia, Depok; Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung; and Gajah Mada University, Jogyakarta.

8. In ‘A Better Class of Corruption’, Ross H. McLeod (2000) raises some interesting comparisons between systems of centralized and managed corruption versus decentralized and uncontrolled systems of corruption.

9. When Indonesia was struggling to define itself during the period of independence there were competing forces, some advocating Islamic principles as enshrined in the Jakarta Charter, and others advocating the secular principles of Pancasila. The latter won the debate, although there are groups in Indonesia that have yet to abandon the goal of institutionalizing Islamic law and principles in Indonesia. In Java, distinctions have been made between Muslims categorized as traditionalist and orthodox (santri) and those known to be more syncretic (abangan), blending indigenous customs with religion (Geertz, 1960).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adam Tyson

Adam Tyson is a PhD student in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds

Paul Tyson

Paul Tyson, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at Brock University, Ontario, Canada