Politics in Contemporary Indonesia: Institutional Change, Policy Challenges and Democratic Decline

241 Pages·2022·2.572 MB·English

by  Ken Setiawan and Dirk Tomsa

Politics in Contemporary Indonesia
In Politics in Contemporary Indonesia, Ken M.P. Setiawan and Dirk Tomsa
analyse the most prominent political ideas, institutions, interests and issues that
shape Indonesian politics today. Guided by the overarching question whether
Indonesia still deserves its famous label as a ‘model Muslim democracy’, this
book argues that the most serious threats to Indonesian democracy emanate from
the fading appeal of democracy as a compelling narrative, the increasingly brazen
capture of democratic institutions by predatory interests and the narrowing public
space for those who seek to defend the values of democracy. In so doing, the book
answers the following key questions:
• What are the dominant political narratives that underpin Indonesian politics?
• How has Indonesia’s institutional framework evolved since the onset of
democratisation in 1998?
• How do competing political interests weaken or strengthen Indonesian
democracy?
• How does declining democracy affect Indonesia’s prospects for dealing with
its main policy challenges?
• How does Indonesia compare to other Muslim-majority states and to its
regional neighbours?
Up-to-date, comprehensive and written in an accessible style, this book will be
of interest to both students and scholars of Indonesian politics, Asian Studies,
Comparative Politics and International Relations.
Ken M.P. Setiawan is Lecturer in Indonesian and Asian Studies at the Asia
Institute, the University of Melbourne, Australia. She is also Associate at the
Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society (CILIS) at the Melbourne Law
School. Her research interests include globalisation and human rights, particu-
larly focusing on the promotion of human rights at national and local levels. She
has widely published on the politics of human rights in contemporary Indonesia,
including Promoting Human Rights: National Human Rights Institutions in
Indonesia and Malaysia (2013).
Dirk Tomsa is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics, Media and
Philosophy at La Trobe University, Australia. His main research interests focus
on Indonesian and comparative Southeast Asian politics, especially in the areas of
democratisation and democratic decline, electoral and party politics, institutional
change and environmental politics. His publications include Party Politics and
Democratization in Indonesia: Golkar in the Post-Suharto Era (Routledge, 2008)
as well as two co-edited volumes and numerous journal articles and book chapters
on Indonesian and Southeast Asian politics.
Politics in Contemporary
Indonesia
Institutional Change, Policy Challenges
and Democratic Decline
Ken M.P. Setiawan and Dirk Tomsa
Cover image @ Nur Taufik Zamari
First published 2022
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Ken M.P. Setiawan & Dirk Tomsa
The right of Ken M.P. Setiawan & Dirk Tomsa to be identified as authors
of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-138-62606-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-62608-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-45951-1 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9780429459511
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgements viii
Glossary x
1 Trends and Features of Contemporary Indonesian Politics 1
2 The Road to Democracy 18
3 Political Institutions: Multiparty Presidentialism and Electoral Politics 35
4 Local Government 52
5 The Judiciary 69
6 Islam and Politics 85
7 Civil Society and the Media 102
8 Human Development and Public Health 119
9 Gender Equality and Sexual Politics 135
10 Human Rights 151
11 Environmental Challenges 167
12 Foreign Policy 184
13 Indonesia in Comparative Perspective 202
Index 219
Illustrations
Map
1 Indonesia provinces and capital cities, including maritime
boundaries – 2013 xv
Figures
5.1 Indonesia in the Corruption Perception Index, 2012–2020 78
8.1 Indonesia’s Human Development Index, 1990–2019 120
8.2 Inequality in Indonesia, according to the Gini coefficient 127
13.1 Indonesia’s scores in the Freedom in the World surveys, 1997–2020 210
13.2 Comparing Indonesia’s democracy scores – Freedom House vs. EIU 210
13.3 Freedom in the World, Southeast Asia, 2013–2020 213
13.4 EIU Democracy Index, Southeast Asia, 2013–2020 213
13.5 Freedom in the World, countries with large Muslim populations,
2013–2020 215
13.6 EIU Democracy Index, countries with large Muslim populations,
2013–2020 216
Tables
1.1 Public support for democracy in Indonesia, 2004-2014 6
3.1 Parliamentary election results, 1971-1997 (in percent) 37
3.2 Parliamentary election results, 1999-2019 (in percent), major
parties only 40
4.1 Growth in administrative entities, 1998-2019 57
4.2 Indonesia’s governmental structure 58
4.3 Voter turnout in pilkada (since introduction of simultaneously
held elections in 2015) 58
6.1 Electoral results of Islamic parties, 1999-2019 90
9.1 Women’s representation in parliament 140
9.2 Maternal mortality rate (MMR) by region per 100,000 live births
(2015) 143
12.1 Gross domestic product (GDP) per country (2019) 190
12.2 Indonesia’s main trading partners 192
13.1 Freedom House assessment criteria 209
13.2 Most democratic Muslim-majority states in 2020 216
Illustrations vii
Boxes
3.1 Indonesian Presidents 38
5.1 Human Rights and Sharia Law in Aceh 75
6.1 Islamist Terrorism in Indonesia 91
7.1 Students in Political History 105
8.1 Indonesia’s Tobacco Industry 124
11.1 Indonesia’s Sinking Capital 171
Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the assistance and encourage-
ment of a great number of colleagues and friends. We would like to thank our
colleagues at La Trobe University and the University of Melbourne for provid-
ing supportive academic environments and valuable support networks. At La
Trobe University, Dirk Tomsa was particularly grateful for stimulating discus-
sions with Dina Afrianty, Nicholas Herriman, James Leibold and Gavin Height.
At the University of Melbourne, Ken Setiawan would like to thank Rachael
Diprose, Michael Ewing, Vedi Hadiz, Edwin Jurriëns, Kate McGregor, Dave
McRae, Andrew Rosser, Justin Wejak and Hellena Souisa. In addition, a number
of other colleagues and friends offered valuable advice, suggestions, recommen-
dations and assistance. In particular, we would like to acknowledge Burhanuddin
Muhtadi for conducting a public opinion survey that provided data for Chapter 11.
We would also like to express special thanks to everyone in Indonesia who offered
feedback at a time when the country was facing extraordinary hardship because of
the Covid-19 pandemic.
At Routledge, we thank Dorothea Schaefter and Alexandra de Brauw, as well
as Saraswathy Narayan and Joanna Hardern for their support and patience dur-
ing the process of writing this book. Some sections of the book have appeared
in other publications. Parts of Chapter 1, for instance, build on Tomsa (2018),
‘Regime resilience and presidential politics in Indonesia’, Contemporary Politics,
vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 266-285. In Chapter 4, small sections were part of Tomsa
(2015), ‘Toning down the big bang: the politics of decentralisation during the
Yudhoyono years’, in E Aspinall, M Mietzner & D Tomsa (eds), The Yudhoyono
Presidency: Indonesia’s Decade of Stability and Stagnation, ISEAS, Singapore,
pp. 155-174, while Chapter 6 includes scattered extracts from Tomsa (2019),
‘Islamism and party politics in Indonesia’, in P Djupe, MJ Rozell & T Jelen (eds),
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Oxford University Press. doi: http://
dx .doi .org /10 .1093 /acrefore/ 9780190228637 .013 .1157. Chapter 10 builds on ear-
lier publications by Setiawan, including ‘The Human Rights Courts: embedding
impunity’, in M Crouch (ed.), The Politics of Court Reform: Judicial Change
and Legal Culture in Indonesia, 2019, pp. 1-28; ‘Shifting from international
to ‘Indonesian’ justice measures: two decades of addressing past human rights
violations’, Journal of Contemporary Asia, vol. 49, no. 5, pp. 837-861 (2019,
Acknowledgements ix
co-authored with Katharine McGregor); and ‘A state of surveillance? Freedom
of expression under the Jokowi Presidency’, in T Power & E Warburton (eds),
Democracy in Indonesia: From Stagnation to Regression?, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak
Institute, Singapore, 2020, pp. 254-274. Chapter 11 includes data published in
Setiawan & Tomsa, ‘Covid-19, Public Ignorance and Democratic Decline: Three
Forces Chipping Away at Indonesia’s Poor Environmental Conservation’, The
Conversation, 16 June 2021.
Finally, both authors owe immense gratitude to their partners and families for
their consistent support. As large parts of the book were written during the Covid-
19 pandemic, we extend our thanks to Edwin, Wulan, Setia, Raphael and Hanna
for allowing us to finish the project in between lockdowns, home schooling and
seemingly endless online meetings.
Map 1 reproduced with the permission of CartoGIS Services, Scholarly
Information Services, The Australian National University.