Title: 40th World Annual Conference
1Democracythe Indonesian Experience
Ginandjar Kartasasmita Chairman, House of
Regional Representatives of the Republic of
Indonesia
- 40th World Annual Conference
- International Association of Political
Consultants (IAPC) - Denpasar-Indonesia, November 13th 2007
2Introduction
- Indonesia is emerging from long period of
authoritarian rule to consolidate its status as
one of the worlds largest democratic country. - Although Indonesia has not been on the road to
democracy, for long, there is much that has been
achieved for which many citizens may be proud.
3Introduction . . .
- Democracy has already rooted and become the only
game in town, although it still faces various
challenges and yet to prove to be the bestif not
the onlyway to creating the conditions for
sustainable development and enhancement of
peoples welfare. - This presentation is an attempt to highlight
salient aspects of, and draw some lessons, from
Indonesias experience in democracy.
4The Indonesian Archipelago
- a country of 220 million (as of 2005),
- an archipelago strung 5000 kilometers along the
equator. - more than 13,000 islands, 5,000 are inhabited.
- more than 200 ethnic groups and 350 languages and
dialects. - 85 to 90 are Muslims.
5Regime Change in Indonesia
6Development Trilogy
7Political stability
- The military, the bureaucracy and Golkar (the
government party) constituted the political
pillars of the New Order. - Two other political parties were allowed to
exist, but were politically constrained. - The floating mass concept (depolitization of the
masses) constituted an important aspect of the
political strategy to sustain long-term political
stability. - The political system had produced the intended
result political stability that had endured for
three decades, sustaining economic growth which
in turn further reinforced its claim to
legitimacy.
8Economic Development
- With political stability assured, the Soeharto
Government earnestly embarked on economic
development, which was widely considered as
successful using various standard of
measurements. - It all ended with the 1997 financial crisis. The
economy crumbled under the weight of the crisis,
followed by popular movement against the Soeharto
regime.
9- Huntington maintains that a social scientist who
wished to predict future democratization would
have done reasonably well if he simply fingered
the non-democratic countries in the 1,000-3,000
(GNP per capita) transition zone (1991 63). - Further studies, in particular an extensive
quantitative research and analysis done by
Przeworsky et.al. (2000 92) has lent support to
Huntingtons threshold argument. - In 1996, the year before the economic crisis
swept Indonesia, its GNP per capita had reached
1,155. - According to Huntingtons theory, at that stage
Indonesia had entered the transition zone, which
meant that eventually sooner or later political
change would happen.
10Constitutional Reform
- The democratization process in Indonesia,
although triggered by the 1997/1998 economic
crisis, has been undertaken relatively peacefully
in conjunction with the reform of the
constitution. - The weaknesses in the constitution contributed
heavily to the concentration and abuse of power,
the lack of law and order, shallow citizen
representation, opacity of governance, and the
high incidence of human rights abuses.
11Constitutional reform . . .
- The constitution was written in a very broad and
general way. It has only 37 articles and 6
transitory provisions. - There is strength to the way it was written that
makes the constitution flexible and easily
adaptable. - The weakness is that it is so broad, general and
flexible, that it can beand has beeninterpreted
in different ways. - It gives a lot of room to the incumbent president
to maneuver and concentrate power in his or her
hands, as history has shown with Indonesias
first and second presidents.
12The amendment process
- The First Amendment 1999
- The Second Amendment 2000
- The Third Amendment 2001
- The Fourth Amendment 2002
13- A term limit of two consecutive five-year terms.
- Returned the power of legislation to parliament.
- Decentralization and regional autonomy.
- The separation of the police from the military.
- A new section on human rights was constituted
that incorporated statements from the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
14- Provides for direct election by the people of the
president and the vice president as a ticket. - To be elected, the candidate will have to get
more than 50 of the popular vote with at least
20 of the vote in at least half of all the
provinces. - Sets out rules and procedures for the impeachment
of the president. - The parliament can only propose that the
president be impeached after requesting that the
(the newly established) Constitutional Court
examine the charges against the president and
after receiving from the court a finding that the
president is guilty as charged.
15- Appointments of the members of the Supreme Court
by the president have to be proposed by a newly
constituted independent judicial commission, and
approved by the parliament. - In a major structural change to the legislative
body, although Indonesia remains a unitarian
state, the third amendment constituted a
bicameral system of representation. - It established the House of Regional
Representatives (Dewan Perwakilan Daerah-DPD),
representing each of the provinces equally,
similar to the US Senate.
16- Stipulates universal government-sponsored primary
education, minimum aggregate education spending
of 20 from the national government and regional
governments budget, - Incorporates clauses on social justice and
environmental protection.
17Strengthening the Political Institutions
- All political offices are elected through general
elections - President and Vice President
- Member of both house of parliaments, and regional
councils - Governors, Bupati (District Heads), Majors,
Village Heads.
18- All important political appointeesexcept members
of the cabinethave to be confirmed by the
parliament i.e. - Chiefs of the Military and Police
- Supreme and Constitutional Court Justices
- Governor and Deputy Governor of the Central Bank.
19- Members of national commissions such as
- Anti corruption
- Judicial
- Elections
- Fair business competition
- Ambassadors from and to Indonesia
- Human rights
- have to be confirmed by the parliament.
20Political Parties
- One of the basic requirements or institutions in
a democracy is the existence of a free and active
political parties to represent the people in the
governance of a nation. - In 2004 elections, 24 political participated, 17
parties won seats in the parliament. - Indonesia is gearing for the next general
election in 2009. - The law for parliamentary elections is being
deliberated in the parliament. - Among the crucial issues are the redrawing of the
voting constituencies and the party threshold in
parliament.
21Civil Society . . .
- Indonesia's civil society has grown in recent
years and has played a role in the political
change. - However, as a real countervailing force to the
state, it is still weak. - Not only is it a relatively new concept in
Indonesia's polity, and thus yet to mature, the
quality of the people who are attracted to join
it does civil society little good. - Only recently has civil society attracted
better-qualified people from among the graduates
of top universities and among the top ranks. - In the past, this class of young people was more
attracted to the bureaucracy, the academia,
business and even the military.
22The rise of the middle class . . .
- At that stage the Indonesian middle class
political attitude was not necessarily
anti-government in fact until the end of the
1980s the majority of the middle class who owed
their economic advancement to the governments
development efforts believed in the governments
development creed and strongly favored political
stability. - By the mid-1990s the Indonesian middle class had
reached the critical mass in number as well as
in resources to play a significant role at
political change. And they had increasingly
become critical of the government their
writings, plays and discourses had provided for
intellectual inspiration towards democratization.
- They have now become the backbone of Indonesias
civil society as well as filling the growing
demand for intellectual professional members of
political parties.
23Decentralization
- One of the challenges facing Indonesia is keeping
the country united. - The threat of separation has always plagued the
country since the first days of independence. - One of the main grievance is income and regional
disparity. It is a complex problem and would take
time and effort to resolve, but at the heart of
the problem was the overly centralized government
structure and decision making process. - Devolvement of central authority should be the
first step toward addressing the problem.
24The Role of Islam
- The threat to the unity and integrity of the
country has recently been perceived as not only
to come from ethnic or regional separatism but
also from fundamental and political Islam. Many
have speculated about the political implication
of the rise of the social standing of Islam in
Indonesia. - In actuality, however, Indonesian Islam is
embedded in a culture of tolerance that can be
traced back to the history of Islamization of the
archipelago. - Islam originally came to Indonesia and
religiously "conquered" the people not through
war, but through trade, marriage and education. - Hence the absorption of Islam by the societies in
this vast archipelago was generally peaceful and
involved little coercion.
25The Role of Islam . . .
- In fact, in the propagation of Islam there was a
tendency to adjust the new religion to older
beliefs that resulted in moderate and
tolerantsome may say syncreticattitudes among
the majority of Indonesian Muslims. - It is true that fundamentalist Islamic groups,
some of them militant, do exist in Indonesia, but
they are marginal and have little popular
support. - Despite the recurrence of incidents involving
some Islamic extremists, for many years,
Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim
population in the world, has been well known as a
pluralistic society characterized by religious
moderation and tolerance.
26The Role of Islam . . .
- The September 11 act of terrorism against the US
was almost unanimously condemned by organized
Muslims and by the public in general. - Except for a few very vocal fanatics, Indonesia's
Muslims were outraged by with happened in New
York. - The feeling of outrage against terrorism that had
taken the lives of innocent people was heightened
when Indonesia also became a victim of
international terrorism with the bombing in Bali
on 12 October 2002, the more recent Marriot
bombing in Jakarta on 5 August 2002, and the
second Bali Bombing in 2005. - For many Indonesian Muslims, terrorism had only
succeeded in creating the wrong image of Islam
and Islamic values.
27The Role of the Military
- Observers of Indonesia have paid much attention
to the role of the military in post-New Order
politics and how the military perceive its role
in democracy. - Events surrounding the fall of Soeharto showed
that the military had been supportive of
political change. Its role was crucial in the
peaceful transition from an authoritarian regime
to real democracy. - In the political transition period, the military
lent its political weight to the
institutionalization of democracy, that
dismantled the old authoritarian structures and
replaced it with a democratic system. - The military has shown its commitment to
democracy when it accepted the consensus of the
polity that it should no longer take an active
role in politics and therefore no longer hold
seats in the elective political institutions.
28The Role of the Military . . .
- In the post-Soeharto period, the military had
been steadfast in refusing to be used as an
instrument to subvert the constitution and
resisted the pressure to reverse to
authoritarianism. - Although many retired senior officers were
against changing the constitution, the serving
military establishment fully supported the
amendments that have become the foundation for a
stronger and more stable democracy. - Therefore it is safe to say that at present the
military is not a threat-but an asset to
Indonesia's democracy.
29Economic Performance
- After the dramatic economic, political and social
upheavals at the end of the 1990s, Indonesia has
started to regain its footing. The country has
largely recovered from the economic crisis that
threw millions of its citizens back into poverty
in 1998 and saw Indonesia regress to low-income
status. - Recently with GNP per capita of 1280 (2005), it
has once again become one of the world's emergent
middle-income countries. Poverty levels that had
increased by over one-third during the crisis are
now back to pre-crisis levels.
30Poverty in Indonesia fell rapidly until the
1990s, and has declined again since the crisis
31Positive Growth Trajectory
Sustained economic growth despite difficult
environment
- Economy is on a steady upward trend. Indonesias
performance is very much comparable in the region
- Over the medium term, this acceleration process
should continue assuming that all reform programs
are implemented. - The Indonesias economy is still fragile and
sensitive to external shocks (financial
turbulence, high oil price, etc)
gt 7
6 - 7
5 - 6
5.25
4
2010 - beyond
2006
2007 - 2009
2001-2003
2004-2005
Source CBS
.
32Does culture matter?
- All the discussions on democracy are based on the
works of western scholars. Is democracy a
monopoly of the west? Are there no cultural
variants of democracy? On the other hand, is
culture a legitimate (or genuine) justification
or merely an excuse (or apology) for
authoritarianism? - Indonesia, under both Sukarno and Soeharto
insisted that culture was indeed the distinctive
variable of any political system, and launched
concepts for the political systems that would
respond best to what they claimed to be the
intrinsic values characterizing Indonesias
society.
33Does culture matter? . . .
- Lee Kwan Yew, the former Prime Minister of
Singapore, the founding father of the country and
its political architect, has been making a very
strong case about the Asian values as an
important element in the political system of the
East Asian countries. He believes that
adversarial politics is out of place in a
multiracial society such as Singapore. - Many scholarly works have been devoted on the
subject of cultural paradoxes in democracy most
concluded that indeed culture exerts a certain
influence on how democracy is adapted among
countries (see Alagappa, 1996 Fukuyama, 1996
Lipset, 1996 Huntington, 1996 Inglehart, 2000
Sen, 2001).
34Conclusion
- In conclusion, much has been achieved, but even
more remains to be done. The past few years have
been extremely eventful for Indonesia. - Following the maelstrom of political, economic
and social crises, economic stability has now
returned though the economy has not returned to
the heady levels of the boom years. - Most significantly of all, the country is
charting new political waters with a
comprehensively amended constitution a process
that again marks a dramatic break from the past. - To overcome the challenges ahead, whether from
political corruption, violent communal strife and
terrorism in the name of God or external economic
shocks, the new tools of government and
democratic governance will face their definitive
test.
35Conclusion . . .
- What is significant about Indonesias democracy,
that it is homegrown. - Indonesians are adapting democratic models and
values that are universal in nature, but the
democratization process in Indonesia had been
initiated and carried out by political forces
within the country. - In certain stages of the process such as in
implementing the general election, Indonesia
receives foreign assistance such as in
observations of the balloting, or the case of
Aceh, in foreign facilitation of peace
negotiation. But in the case of Indonesia
democracy was not imposed by foreign powers.
36Conclusion . . .
- Indonesia still needs to strengthen its
democratic foundations and practices, such as
greater executive accountability to the law, to
other branches of government, and to the public
a reduction in the barriers to political
participation and mobilization by marginal
groups decentralization of power to facilitate
broader political access and accountability
vigorous independent action by civil society and
more effective protection for the political and
civil rights of citizens. - The fledging democracy still faces serious
challenges, such political corruption, the rule
of law, as well as accelerating its economic
reform and improving its governance to sustain
growth and poverty reduction. However the course
of the country is heading into the right
direction. - The Indonesias experience, its successes and
failures maybe worthy of some lessons to other,
especially those who at the stage of, or entering
the same zone of transition.
37