State disintegration and power politics in post-Suharto Indonesia

This article illustrates how discourses on ‘state fragility’ have been instrumentalised by the Indonesian military in order to consolidate its political and economic power after the fall of Suharto. In the wake of Indonesia’s transition to democracy violent conflicts escalated in East Timor, Aceh, Papua, the Moluccas and Sulawesi. Most notably East Timor’s successful secession spawned fears over the potential ‘balkanisation’ of Indonesia. In this context the Indonesian military, which had been shunned for its involvement in Suharto’s New Order, managed to re-establish itself as the ‘guardian of the nation’. Based on fieldwork in Indonesia, the article describes how post-9/11 discourses over a potential break-up of Indonesia were used by the Indonesian military to reconsolidate its power in the post-Suharto era. The research findings illustrate that, against the looming threat of state disintegration, attempts to revoke the military’s prerogatives have either failed or have been aborted during the planning stages.     

Indonesia’s swift securitization of the Natuna Islands how Jakarta countered China’s claims in the South China Sea

After being a neutral actor for decades in the complex South China Sea (SCS) territorial disputes, Indonesia has seen itself compelled by China’s assertiveness to become firmer about protecting its territorial sovereignty around the Natuna Islands (NI). Jakarta is alarmed by China’s claims that it has undeniable historical fishing rights in the NI territorial waters because they undermine Indonesia’s territorial sovereignty. Our analysis loosely adopts the securitization conceptual framework proposed by the Copenhagen School to reveal that Jakarta swiftly securitized the NI issue between 2014 and 2016. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, this paper unpacks how the Indonesian printed mainstream media discussed the NI in recent years. By the end of 2016, the Indonesian media portrayed China’s claims that it has historical fishing rights in the NI territorial waters as the most urgent national security threat to Indonesia, i.e. the NI issue was securitized. This analysis shows that the Indonesian people accepted Jakarta’s security discourse, i.e. Jakarta had successfully securitized China’s claims over the NI territorial waters. This paper makes a new contribution to the securitization literature by simultaneously analysing the Indonesian news and social media outlets.     

The politics of history in West Papua - Indonesia conflict

This study examines how history is used as a source of legitimacy and a political instrument in the sectarian conflict between the Indonesian government and the West Papua nationalists. This paper explores the debate surrounding two historical aspects relevant to West Papua’s demand for independence: first, West New Guinea’s past as part of the Dutch colony and its relations with Indonesia and second, the 1969 referendum, the so-called Act of Free Choice, to decide West Papua’s fate. The Indonesian democratization in 1998 provided momentum to revise the narration of West Papua’s history. Democracy has empowered the Papuans as the victims of a power struggle to challenge the previous Indonesia’s monolithic narration of history. The Papuans’ alternative narration of history also serves as a medium of liberation from oppression by the Indonesian government. The Papuan story counters the theory that the narration of history is a privilege of the ruler and the winner.     

Democratic consolidation in Central America: A qualitative comparative approach

An end to KKN-the Indonesian acronym for corruption, collusion and nepotism-is currently one of the demands of Indonesia's growing reform movement. This is not the first time corruption has been on the political agenda in Indonesia; indeed, Suharto came to power promising to end corruption. Tackling corruption, however, was not one of the priorities of the Suharto regime and under Suharto KKN thrived while protesting voices were silenced. This article examines the political, economic and cultural conditions which have allowed corruption to flourish in Indonesia and concludes by considering whether the new poltical mood in the country since the fall of Suharto offers hope for a new, more corruption-free Indonesia.     

Enforcing labour rights of irregular migrants in Indonesia

The multi-directional nature of labour migration flows has resulted in an increasing number of countries having become both senders and receivers of regular and irregular migrants. However, some countries continue to see themselves primarily as senders and so ignore their role as a receiving country, which can have negative implications for the rights of migrants in their territory. Using the example of Indonesia, which is State Party to the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families, this article demonstrates that irregular migrant workers in this country have the legal right to protection against labour exploitation even when they work despite the government’s prohibition on employment. The article discusses the ‘right to work’ and how international human rights law has translated it into the ‘right to protection from labour exploitation’ for irregular migrants in Indonesia. By way of two case studies about the Indonesian government’s handling of irregular migrants, it shows how it prioritises enforcement of the employment immigration law over labour and employment laws much like countries that have not ratified the ICRMW. It also draws attention to legal protection gaps that emerge for asylum seekers when they are recognised to be genuine refugees.     

Learning from defeat: reform,revolution and the problem of organization in the first New Left

Within the contemporary anti-capitalist movement a debate concerning the most effective forms taken by political organizations has opened. However, few of the contributions to this debate include an adequate historical component: indeed, while many have labelled the anti-capitalist movement a new left, few draw any lessons from the first British New Left of 1956–62. This article addresses this lacuna through an analysis of the debate over the question of political organization as it was articulated within the first British New Left. It is argued that the New Left’s critique of Leninism was underpinned by the political reformism that many of its leading members inherited from the Communist Party, and suggested that this left-reformist strategy informed its collapse in the early sixties. It concludes that contemporary radicals should learn the dangers associated with both a too close relationship to the Labour Party, and from the New Left’s failure to begin the process of building a political organization that could have begun to act as an alternative to Labour.     

Improving local infrastructure finance in developing countries through grant-loan linkages: ideas from indonesia's water sector

In recent years, developing countries under fiscal pressure have increasing recognized significant weaknesses in their intergovernmental mechanisms for financing local infrastructure. Many countries are in the process of rationalizing poorly coordinated and subjectively allocated grant systems as well as loans. Such efforts, however, are typically undertaken independently of each other, often providing conflicting incentives for local fiscal behavior. I argue that the reform of grant and loan mechanisms should be explicitly linked to improve the overall effectiveness of the infrastructure finance system. The potential complications involved in designing grant-loan linkages, however, are considerable. I illustrate some key issues by examining the water sector in Indonesia, concluding with suggestions for how to think about creating such linkages in other sectors and countries.     

Coalitions,convergence and corporate governance reform in Indonesia

This paper argues that Indonesia's corporate governance system is unlikely to converge on the outsider model of corporate governance, at least in so far as this means an exact replication of this model. While the Indonesian government has introduced a range of corporate governance reforms aimed at bringing in key elements of the outsider model since the mid-1980s, and especially since the onset of the Asian crisis, there have been serious problems with the implementation and enforcement of these reforms. Underlying this outcome, it is argued, has been the structure of power and interest within Indonesia: the balance of power between the main coalitions of interest has been such that the political preconditions for the proper operation of the outsider model have not yet been established.     

Party presidentialization in post-Suharto Indonesia

ABSTRACT

Indonesia presents an extremely rare quasi-experimental research case: the constitutional reforms and the transition to full presidentialism have effected a presidentialization of political parties that is largely in line with the changes predicted by the model of Samuels and Shugart [2010. Presidents, parties and prime ministers: How separation of powers affects party organization and behaviour. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press]. Especially the rise of the new president and his difficult relationship with his own party are testimony to this. But a closer look reveals that the model has to be adapted to Indonesian politics. Presidents have tools to forge grand coalitions and to overcome the dualism to an extent. The size and history of political parties as well as wider socio-economic changes, that is an increasing oligarchization of party organization, have to be considered. Moreover, highly personalized vehicle parties serving the interests of a presidential candidate have emerged. It follows that institutional and structural incentives combined have produced a party system consisting of different party types.     

Co-opting Good Governance Reform: The Rise of a Not-so-Reformist Leader in Kebumen,Central Java

Challenging the existing literature, which tends to downplay the impact of good governance reform in post-Suharto Indonesia, the article suggests that greater intervention by international donors, combined with the process of decentralisation, has influenced the dynamics of political competition at the local level. It suggests that the increasing availability of international aid has provided local elites with an option to engage in a new form of patronage politics that relies less on old instruments, such as money politics and violence. By selectively committing themselves to good governance reform, Indonesian local elites can now seek a new source of power in the form of support from international donors, with which they can raise their profiles as ‘reformists’ and consolidate power, only to engage in familiar, if less blatant, forms of patronage politics. The article highlights such a dimension of local politics with reference to the case of Kebumen's former regent, Rustriningsih.     

Indonesia’s maritime connectivity development: domestic and international challenges

This study considers the political aspects of the Joko Widodo government’s megaproject to build an integrated marine logistic system known as the tol laut. Expanding the existing literature which gives details about the contextual obstacles faced by and the prospects for the Indonesian government to pursue its infrastructure ambitions, the study argues that notwithstanding the relevance of the tol laut for advancing the Indonesian economy, it is inevitably entangled with dynamic internal and external environments which can unfavourably distort the construction processes. This is the way of understanding the political economy of Indonesia’s development issues which allows for the juxtaposition of domestic political and international relations factors as its framework of analysis. The discussion is divided into four sections. Section one explains the conceptual and methodological foundation of the study. Section two outlines the importance of the tol laut to Indonesian national economic development. Section three looks at how the current domestic political settings pose structural hurdles to Widodo’s tol laut, and section four observes the effect of international relations of powerful regional actors and Jakarta’s diplomatic capacity to the on-going tol laut. The concluding section summarizes the findings of the study.     

The trap of pop-charisma for the institutionalization of Indonesia's post-Suharto parties

This article investigates how the Indonesian party system has created parties that increasingly rely on charisma for support and votes. Initially associated with divinely bestowed qualities, the concept of charisma has evolved to emphasize popularity and recognizability instead. In Indonesia, this tendency has combined with direct elections to distract parties from their ideal functions of developing platforms and programmes. Instead, parties have sought to pick and choose candidates that are popular to front their campaign. This has contributed to the formation of dysfunctional parties that are opportunistic, corrupt, and rent-seeking. As Indonesian parties continue their struggle to prove themselves by relying on the ephemeral attraction of personal charisma, the resultant incapacity to develop solid organization will continue to be a crippling trap for them.     

History and Institutions in the Rebuilding of Social Capital after Forced Resettlement in the Philippines and Indonesia

Resettlement results in the loss of social capital from which poor households can draw resources for sustenance, survival and wellbeing. While Putnam deems social capital formation as pre-determined by a community’s history of civic engagement, the institutional view argues that social capital is generated through the institutions’ interventions. Utilising a comparative approach involving two resettlement sites, one in the Philippines and one in Indonesia, this article presents findings on the explanatory power of these two perspectives. The Philippine case is greatly influenced by the institutional interventions while the Indonesian case testifies to the validity of the theoretical perspective of Putnam.     

Shifting linkages in ethnic mobilization: the case of RMDSZ and the Hungarians in Transylvania

The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) has been the most stable actor in the Romanian party system over the past two decades. However, in this article, we argue that beyond this apparent stability, the linkages between RMDSZ and its voters have undergone a gradual, yet significant shift. The ethnic block voting of Transylvanian Hungarians was closely connected to the concept of a self-standing and parallel “Minority Society,” and to the practices of institution building that the minority elites engaged in in the early 1990s. However, since its first participation in the Romanian government in 1996, RMDSZ has gradually departed from this strategy, a phenomenon that was also closely connected to a process of elite change within the organization. The present RMDSZ leadership puts less and less emphasis on policy programs that could reinforce the institutional system of the minority; consequently, it is unable (and unwilling) to organizationally integrate the community activists of the minority society who previously had played a key role in the process of (electoral) mobilization. At the rhetorical level, RMDSZ did not abandon the goal of building a parallel Hungarian minority society, but in its linkages to the Hungarian electorate, clientelistic exchanges have become predominant.     

Linkages between Decentralisation and Inequalities in Neonatal Health: Evidence from Indonesia

This study uses five waves of the Indonesian Demographic Health Surveys to analyse decentralisation and geographical inequality in health services delivery. Accounting for unobserved community-level heterogeneity with random effects and correlated random effects models, we link facility-based birth delivery to the period of decentralisation and Indonesia’s major island groups using a pooled sample of 71,815 children. We also generate direct estimates of neonatal mortality from 1990 to 2007. The results show that the implementation of decentralisation has accorded with a marked expansion in both health service and outcome inequalities in Indonesia, at least with respect to neonates. Systemic funding failures for health and decision-space issues resulting from decentralisation are likely to have greater impact in disadvantaged regions where local capacity is weakest. The need to address these fundamental issues to reduce inequalities and improve general health outcomes appears supportable.     

Susi Versus the rest: the political economy of the fisheries industry in Indonesia during Jokowi’s first term

ABSTRACT

Indonesian Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister, Susi Pudjiastuti, has become a political superstar on the back of the media attention gained with her tough stance in fighting illegal fishing since 2014. But, beyond the headlines, little is known of the political struggles unleashed by her approach, on how her policies have affected the political economy of the industry, and on whether her reforms are sustainable. Drawing on over 30 in-depth interviews, this article fills the gap. The picture that emerges is complex and fluid: the minister has made progress in limiting the reach of the foreign-led fisheries mafia, but achieved limited success in convincing Indonesians to invest in the industry or in building a constituency to support her drive. Through the lens of the political economy of the fisheries, this article also offers a window into how politics is contested in increasingly ‘populist’ Indonesia.     

European Union civil society support and the depoliticisation of Turkish civil society

Despite growing critical literature on external funding, the link between EU funding to Turkish civil society organisations (CSOs) and their depoliticisation remains understudied. This article fills this gap. This article explores EU funds in Turkey and shows the incentives it creates for a depoliticised civil society. Drawing on an original set of interviews with 45 CSOs, this article analyses how Turkish CSOs interact with EU funding and how this support impacts on Turkish civil society. This article argues that EU funding’s short-term, activity-based, measurable outcome and visibility-oriented structure contributed to the depoliticisation of those CSOs benefited from EU funds.     

One Woman’s View of the Early Chinese Communist Movement: The Autobiography of Mme. Zhang Guotao

Abstract

Wei Baqun, leader of the influential Donglan Peasant Movement in southern China in the 1920s and 1930s, was attacked by his Nationalist enemies as a real and dangerous Communist long before he joined the Chinese Communist Party. Meanwhile, some of his Communist comrades were reluctant to admit him into the Party or to recognize him as a genuine Communist even after he joined the Communist Party. But after his death, they all began to promote him as a perfect Communist. Through an analysis of Wei Baqun’s life and revolution, this article shows how controversial and conflicting perceptions of the political identity of a political leader could exert strong influence on the political career of the leader and on local and national politics in revolutionary China. The article also attempts to explain why the confusion and controversy over Wei Baqun’s identity dissipated after his death.     

The Internet in Indonesia: Development and Impact of Radical Websites

The Internet has become a crucial part of modern society's life due to its ability to facilitate communication and structure contemporary society. Indonesia has not been left out of this global phenomenon. The Internet came to Indonesia in 1983 and its usage has continued to expand ever since, especially within institutions of learning and in the government sector. The study of radical websites must be situated within the development of the Internet in Indonesia in general instead of being examined by itself. The impact of certain activities such as cyberterrorism must then be examined in perspective, given the vast expanse of Indonesia as an archipelago and the resulting difficulties in linking the entire country to the Internet. This article seeks to trace the development of the Internet in Indonesia and examine the resulting impact on the reach of the radical Bahasa Indonesia Islamic websites in the Indonesian Archipelago and beyond. It also highlights typical narrative and operations of the radical websites, which serves to distinguish them from radical websites from elsewhere, such as the Middle East.     

Institutions for high-quality growth: What they are and how to acquire them

This article opens with a discussion of the types of institutions that allow markets to perform adequately. While we can identify in broad terms what these are, there is no unique mapping between markets and the non-market institutions that underpin them. The paper emphasizes the importance of “local knowledge”, and argues that a strategy of institution building must not over-emphasize best-practice “blueprints” at the expense of experimentation. Participatory political systems are the most effective ones for processing and aggregating local knowledge. Democracy is a meta-institution for building good institutions. A range of evidence indicates that participatory democracies enable higher-quality growth. Sakenn pe prie dan sa fason (Everyone can pray as he likes.) —Mauritian folk wisdom This paper was originally prepared for the International Monetary Fund’s Conference on Second-Generation Reforms, Washington, DC, November 8–9, 1999. I thank Ruth Collier, Steve Fish, Mohsin Khan, Saleh Nsouli, conference participants, and an anonymous referee for helpful comments. Dani Rodrik is professor of international political economy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is also the research coordinator for the Group of 24 (G-24), a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (London). He serves as an advisory committee member of the Institute for International Economics, senior advisor of the Overseas Development Council, and advisory committee member of the Economic Research Forum for the Arab Countries, Iran and Turkey. Professor Rodrik’s recent research is concerned with the consequences of international economic integration, the role of conflict-management institutions in determining economic performance, and the political economy of policy reform.