Politics of Citizenship in Indonesia

402 Pages·2017·5.805 MB·English

by  Eric Hiariej, Kristian Stokke

Politics of Citizenship in Indonesia
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POLITICS
OF CITIZENSHIP
IN INDONESIA
Edited by
Eric Hiariej and Kristian Stokke
Published by Yayasan Pustaka Obor Indonesia in cooperation with
PolGov Fisipol UGM and University of Oslo
Jakarta, 2017
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viii + 394 hlm; 16 x 24 cm
ISBN: 978-602-433-507-6
Politics of Citizenship in Indonesia
Editors: Eric Hiariej and Kristian Stokke
Copyright © 2017
All Rights reserved
Published by Yayasan Pustaka Obor Indonesia in cooperation with
PolGov Fisipol UGM and University of Oslo
First edition: July 2017
YOI: 1400.35.73.2017
Design cover: Iksaka Banu
Proofread: Christopher Woodrich
Cover Photograph: Edi Susanto
Yayasan Pustaka Obor Indonesia
Jl. Plaju No. 10 Jakarta 10230
Telepon: [phone]; 31920114
Faks: [phone]
e-mail: [email protected]
http: www.obor.or.id
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Weaving Citizenship, Creating Democracy from Its Core vii

1. I ntroduction: Politics of Citizenship in Indonesia
Eric Hiariej and Kristian Stokke 1
2. P olitics of Citizenship: Towards an Analytical Framework
Kristian Stokke 23
3. I ndonesian Politics and Citizenship in Historical Perspective
Eric Hiariej and Olle Törnquist 55
4. S tagnated Democracy: The Rise of Formal Democracy
i n the Wake of Oligarchy Rules and Weak Pro-Democracy
Movements
Eric Hiariej 85
5. S talemated Populism and The Case for Citizenship-Driven
Social Democracy 119
Olle Törnquist and Luky Djani With Surya Tjandra
and Osmar Tanjung 119
6. D omestic Workers and Their Struggle for Citizenship
a nd Collective Identity in Indonesia
Margherita Gastaldi, David Jordhus-Lier, and Debbie Prabawati 153
7. J uggling While Claiming Rights: The Urban Poor Community
i n North Jakarta
Amalinda Savirani and Edi Saidi 177
8. C onstructing Palm Oil Justice Movements in Indonesia:
C itizenship and Collective Identity
Maharani Hapsari 201
9. T he Politics of Citizenship and Welfare: Countering
“Extractivism” in Resource-Rich Regions in Indonesia
Joash Tapiheru With Wigke Capri, Dian Lestariningsih
and Hening Kartika Nudya 235
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10. Youth Movements and The Politics of Recognition
and Redistribution
Wenty Marina Minza, Makmun Wahid, Maesur Zaky,
and Zafira Rahmania Nur Shabrina 271
11. Post-Fundamentalist Islamism and The Politics
of Citizenship in Indonesia
Eric Hiariej, Frans De Jalong, Dana Hasibuan
and Ayu Diasti Rahmawati 305
12. Conclusion: The Continued Need for Transformative
Politics of Citizenship
Kristian Stokke and Eric Hiariej 339
Index 347
About Authors 388
vi
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WEAVING CITIZENSHIP,
CREATING DEMOCRACY FROM ITS CORE
T
his book presents case studies of citizenship in diverse contexts and
from diverse angles to reveal how citizens are engaging in public life.
It aims to bring citizens and citizenship to the fore, instead of leaving
them in the background of the democratisation studies and real democratisation
processes. Democracy is far more than granting individual rights to citizens.
Democracy, in this book, is a matter of citizens’ engagement in coming to term
with public affairs.
The scope of this engagement is far too extensive for this book to cover.
However, the cases covered here are quite complicated. This is to say that the
challenge of democratisation is to come to terms with the complexity of the
articulation of citizens’ interests and the diverse expressions of citizenship. The
idea of democracy presupposes the existence and role of active citizens, a demos.
However, the main discourse on democracy has not been on the citizens in the
demos. Instead, it refers to the idea of a political system or state that merely
sets citizens in the background. Democratisation movements inevitably bring
citizens to the fore, not only in their own struggles but also in studies of them.
In an attempt to bring citizenship to the fore of democratisation in
Indonesia; Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), University of Oslo (UiO), and
network of pro-democracy movements in Indonesia have run a collaborative
endeavour: the Power, Welfare, and Democracy (PWD) Project. In a way, it
blends its study with the movements. It equips pro-democracy activists (the
demos) with a local-based democracy assessment, which lead to a more accurate
understanding of the activists’ opportunities and challenges in achieving their
mission. The research findings feed the democracy movement, as the researchers
are the activists themselves. The participants benefitted from this study not only
through its publication; the knowledge generated from this study can serve as
the basis for facing the next challenge of democratisation in Indonesia.
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Politics of Citizenship in Indonesia
The studies undertaken within the PWD Project cover two different
layers. Nationally, a local-based democracy assessment was the first layer. Such
an assessment has been conducted three times, even though only the last was
conducted within the banner of the PWD Project. For academic purposes, the
assessment report is available in the form of an edited book: Reclaiming the
State Overcoming Problems of Democracy in Post-Soeharto Indonesia, edited
by Olle Törnquist and Amalinda Savirani. However, for practical purposes, the
findings from each locality are absorbed in the agenda setting of the democracy
movements. Apart from this, the activists have also shared their experiences and
engagements in the form of a book: Berebut Kontrol Kesejahteraan: Kasus-kasus
Politisasi Demokrasi di Tingkat Lokal, edited by Caroline Paskarina, Mariatul
Asiah, and Otto Gusti Madung. Other works are waiting for publication from
the study at this layer.
At the second layer picks, some prominent issues itemised at the first
layer are addressed with a more in-depth study. One prominent issue in
democracy is how citizens interact among themselves in dealing with public
affairs. They interact in specific ways, depending on the prevailing context.
Hence, studies on citizen engagement, as this book conveys, are inevitably
contextual. As the studies included in this book indicate, contextual analysis of
citizens and citizenship help us in understanding the challenges that lay ahead
in democratising Indonesia.
Purwo Santoso
Professor of Government, Universitas Gadjah Mada
Project Director of Power, Welfare, and Democracy
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1
INTRODUCTION:
POLITICS OF CITIZENSHIP IN INDONESIA
Eric Hiariej and Kristian Stokke
T
his edited volume is a collection of studies on contemporary citizenship
politics in Indonesia. The goal is to examine the struggles for citizenship
claims and rights in selected sectors, as well as how it is placed within the
larger structural context, particularly the historical development of democracy
in the country.
The core argument of this book is that citizenship is produced and
practiced through movements against injustice. These take the shape of struggles—
by people at the grass-roots level and middle classes and their representing
organisations and activists—for cultural recognition, social and economic
justice, and popular representation. Such popular struggles in Indonesia have
largely ended up engaging with the state through both discursive and non-
discursive processes. While the state is a common focal point, these struggles
are fragmented across different sectors and subject positions. Developing chains
of solidarity among fragments of struggles is highly important, yet attempts at
bridging fragmentation leave much to be desired.
The character and fragmentation of popular struggles reflects the
diversity of injustices and subject positions in society, but is also shaped by
political dynamics. The struggle for citizenship and the historical development
of democracy in Indonesia are closely interwoven. The inability to bridge
fragmentation among citizenship struggles mimics pro-democracy movements’
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Eric Hiariej and Kristian Stokke
lack of capacity in building broader alliances. Likewise, these movements’
tendency toward elitism and habit of penetrating the State also characterise
current struggles for citizenship.
In the following pages this chapter will outline the rationale, methodology,
case studies, and core argument developed through this collection of studies.

Rationale
The studies collected in this volume are part of a collaborative research project
between Universitas Gadjah Mada’s Department of Politics and Government
and the University of Oslo on “Power, Welfare, and Democracy (PWD)”. The
terms “power” and “welfare” denote at least two main concerns regarding the
democratisation process in Indonesia up until the early 2010s (Santoso 2010).
First, the on-going process fatally neglects the issue of power. The subject
is largely absent in debates within academia and among activists and has barely
been taken into consideration in the actual crafting of democracy. Electoralism
occupies the central position as democracy is increasingly treated as merely a
method and procedure to select leaders. The PWD project assesses this trend
with a legitimate anxiety, for discussions and analyses of power, or to be
more exact power relations between different groups and classes in society and
between these actors and the state, should be at the centre of the whole edifice
of the democratisation process. After all, democracy is a matter of managing
power relations that could open the chance for those who lack access to power
and other resources to voice their preferences and advance their interests. This
absence explains why the democratisation process has yet to challenge the
oligarchy domination in the country (Hiariej 2015; see also Hadiz and Robison
2013; Winters 2013). The process is in fact captured by the oligarchy at the
expense of the majority of people, particularly those at the lower end of the
social strata.
Second, the democratisation process is equally foreign to welfare related
issues faced by the people in general on a daily basis, such as education, health
care, housing, public transportation and the cost of fuel and other basic needs
(see, for example, Haggard and Kaufman 2008). Civil liberty and political
freedom may have notably increased, yet the progress in this area has added
little to people’s social and economic welfare. This has provoked cynicism;
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