Overview of Indonesia’s Post-Independence History
I. Democracy: The Sukarno Era
A. Political Regime and Participation: Weak Democracy, Powerful Social Forces
1. A “Titanic Battle of Ideologies”
 Contest over visions of the nation
 Islamic (NU, Masyumi)(The Jakarta Charter 1945)
 Communist (PKI)
 Secular Nationalist (PNI/Military)
 High degree of popular mobilization and support for each of these
 Sukarno’s attempted solutions: Pancasila, Nasakom, and Guided Democracy
 The outcome: coup and massacres of 1965, the military on top
2. Parliamentary Democracy, 1949-1957
 Short-lived 1950 constitution provided for election of a parliament
 First (and only) elections in 1955 – 16 parties, none with more than 22%
 Unstable governments – 7 in 7 years
 Factionalism and deadlock
 Weak, new political institutions, and inexperienced democrats
3. Guided Democracy, 1957-1965
 Suharto’s solution was to dissolve parliament, declare martial law, and reinstate
1945 constitution with strong executive
 Concentrates power in himself
 Depends on his ability to delicately balance rival ideologies
 With his failing health, the tension erupts in 1965
B. Center-Periphery Relations: Rebellion
1. Source of Tension
 Centralization (and Javanization) of power in a unitary structure
 Centralization (and Javanization) under Guided democracy
 Central control of natural resources
2. Rebellions
 Dar’ul Islam Rebellion
 Sulawesi Rebellion
 RMS Rebellion
 PRRI Rebellion
3. Military response
 General Nasution
 Military’s rise to power
 Successfully represses every rebellion
C. Economy: Instability and Crisis
 Steady decline in the Indonesian economy
 Partly due to destruction of WWII and debt inherited from the Dutch
 Partly due to political instability and conflict
 Partly due to poor economic policies (nationalization of Dutch and Chinese
industries, anti-foreign investment, etc)
 By 1965, hyperinflation reaches 500%
II. Dictatorship: The Suharto Era and the New Order
A. Political Regime and Participation: Patrimonial Dictatorship
1. Suharto and the Military
 Suharto and the military become the most powerful political actors
 The relationship between Suharto and the military is a patrimonial one
 Rewarding loyalty
 Encouraging factionalism and competition over spoils
 The military’s economic role
 The curious role of the “technocrats” in a patrimonial regime
 Sadli’s law: “bad times bring good policies”
2. Controlled popular participation
 Elections are continued to provide legitimacy, but Golkar is bound to win
legislative elections, and Suharto is bound to win Presidential elections
 Party Reform of 1973 – forming 2 (controlled) parties out of 9
 PPP (the Islamic parties) and PDI (the Nationalist and Christian parties)
 The special role of Golkar, the government’s party
B. Center-Periphery Relations: Centralization
1. Reducing the autonomy of the military
 Military had led most of the rebellions of the Sukarno Era
 Purging left-leaning and/or disloyal officers
 Rotating regional military commanders (eliminating independent base of power)
 Outside Java, no native of a region can be assigned as commander of that region
2. Law 5 of 1974 – “Government in the Regions”
 Regional governments become administrative extensions of the central government
 Two parallel structures created, at both the provincial and district levels – one was
a “top-down” structure (the provincial or district “administration”) and one was a
“bottom-up” structure (the provincial or district “government”)
 All fiscal resources and executive power controlled by the “administration” (and
thus, effectively, by the central government)
 The executive (governor) of the province is appointed by the center (most
appointees were from the military)
 The “provincial government” had its own legislature and bureaucracy, but was
entirely dependent on the center for revenue
C. Economy: Rapid Growth
1. Economic growth averaged nearly 7% over 30 years
2. Role of the technocrats
 Starting in 1966, Suharto gave space to the technocrats to bring hyperinflation
under control and jump start economic growth.
 At every crisis, the technocrat’s are given power (Sadli’s Law)
3. Role of oil and natural gas
 After oil price rises in 1970s, oil provided substantial revenue to the government
(as well as the military) to fund development projects
 After price decline in 1980s, forced to diversify the economy
4. The Asian Financial Crisis of 1997
III. Democracy: The Post-New Order
A. Political Regime and Participation: Genuine Democracy?
1. At first, same regime (1945 constitution) but new leaders
 B.J. Habibie (Suharto’s VP) succeeds Suharto in May 1998
 Elections arranged for June 1999 (first free and fair elections since 1955)
 PDI-P (Megawati’s Party) wins a plurality of seats
 But, by compromise, Wahid is appointed president by the MPR, while
Megawati becomes VP
 After two years of conflict between Wahid and the DPR, Wahid is impeached
in July 2001
 Megawati becomes president
2. New parties
 48 parties contested the 1999 elections
 Five largest parties:
 PDI-P (Megawati) (33.7%)
 Golkar (22.4%)
 PKB (Wahid) (12.6%)
 PPP (Hamzah Haz) (10.7%)
 PAN (Amien Rais) (7.11%)
3. Reforms to the structure of Indonesian democracy
 Overall, decrease in the power of the MPR, increase in that of the DPR
 Direct presidential elections starting 2004 (no longer appointed by the MPR)
 Decrease in number of seats in the MPR (1000 to 700)
 Decrease representation of military in DPR/MPR (100 to 75 and then to 38)
 Military did not involve itself with Golkar in 1999 elections
 Civil servants no longer compelled to vote for Golkar
B. Center-Periphery Relations: Decentralization
1. The decentralization laws of 1999
 Laws 22 and 25 of 1999
 Decision-making and revenue collecting powers to the district (not province)
2. Civil conflict and secession in the periphery
 Secessionist movements heat up – Aceh, West Papua, East Timor (successful)
 Other civil conflict breaks out
 Muslim-Christian violence in the Moluccas and Sulawesi
 Dayak-Madurese conflict in Kalimantan
3. Decline in the power of the Indonesian state?
C. Economy: Recovery?
1. Dealing with the legacies of the Asian Financial Crisis
2. Economic impact of terrorism and the Bali bombing
3. In 2002, Indonesian economy grew at 3.6%
Core Questions about Dictatorship and Democracy
Why did the first democratic experiment fail?
Why did the authoritarian regime fail?
What obstacles confront the new democracy?