Jurnal Politik
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Interreligious Conflicts in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia: Assumptions, Causes, and Implications
Full text linkWhile Indonesia is known as a land of religious tolerance, interreligious conflicts have been a central issue in the academe. This study attempts to rethink the discourse on this issue by criticizing and elucidating the long-accepted assumption that religion is one of the main sources of interreligious tensions in Indonesia. This study chose a critical qualitative review to extract data and information from previous studies and reports regarding this issue. The results of this study cover such main elements as causes of interreligious conflicts, assumptions on religious conflicts, implications of religious conflicts on the future of Indonesian multicultural society, and a short-term outlook of interreligious conflicts in the country. This article concludes that Indonesia provides many unique contexts and aspects in comprehensively understanding interreligious tensions
Intolerant Democrat Syndrome: The Problem of Indonesian Democratic Consolidation
Full text linkIndonesia underwent democratization after more than 20 years (1998–2020), but many studies conclude that the country’s democracy is not consolidated and suffered a setback, at least in the last five years. An increase in political intolerance in society is believed to be the cause of this setback. However, studies on Indonesian political tolerance are biased and thus do not reflect actual conditions of general tolerance. This study offers a new unbiased strategy called “content-controlled measures of political tolerance” in the research on political tolerance. This strategy has been used in a series of national public opinion surveys for a relatively long period (2004–2019) and is a source of scarce data for this study. Results present a new finding that preference for democracy, as a measure of democratic consolidation at the attitudinal level, is not accompanied by political tolerance. In fact, political tolerance weakens the consolidation of democracy, which is a symptom of a condition that the author calls the “intolerant democrat syndrome.” In this syndrome, preference for democracy is hampered by political tolerance and vice versa. This syndrome makes the consolidation of Indonesian democracy difficult. Further research on the causes of the emergence of this syndrome is necessary; however, the author suspects that the current constitution contributes systematically to this syndrome
Democracy and Social Policy in Southeast Asia: A Comparative Process Tracing Analysis
Full text linkThe relationship between democracy and social policy in Southeast Asia is a critical topic that has received insufficient attention. In general, trends in improving social policy as part of the government’s responsibility for citizens do not follow the trend of democratization. Even in autocratic countries, improving the quality of social policy is always a priority. This study answers the following question: what can the trend of improvement in social policy explain in relation to democratization at the state level? Through the comparative process tracing analysis method, this study demonstrated a discriminatory treatment factor in providing access to public services to certain groups related to the political forces that had been controlling the government. In addition, this study reveals several factors that have not been widely explained from the periodization of social policy changes in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines
Joined-Up Government in the Prevention of Terrorist-Financing Offenses by Nonprofit Organizations: An Evidence-Based Approach
Full text linkIndonesian interagency coordination to prevent terrorist-financing offenses by nonprofit organizations has several drawbacks. This article applies textual analysis and an evidence-based approach to draw effective coordination mechanisms from several countries’ experiences and to design a model of interagency coordination. The model illustrates mechanisms that can be the drivers of changes and minimize ineffective interagency coordination, which may lead to an increase in nonprofit vulnerabilities to terrorist-financing offenses. Evidence drawn from several countries that are contextually relevant to Indonesia, namely, Australia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, illustrates that effective interagency coordination potentially reduces the risks of terrorist financing and has synchronized policies, objectives, functions, and responsibilities among authorities. Therefore, authorities can prioritize interventions and resources to address the most vulnerable factors. This article suggests improvements in four aspects: collaborative endeavors toward single integrated databases; comprehensive risk assessment of nonprofits; priority settings on socialization, education, monitoring, and supervision; and network model to improve voluntary information sharing
Fighting Money Politics and Shamanic Practices
Full text linkThis study aims to describe the efforts of female candidates to break the practice of money politics and the influence of shamans in the 2018 Sriharjo subdistrict election (pilkades). The author used qualitative methods with a case study of the Sriharjo village-head election in Bantul Regency. The author collected primary data through interviews, in-depth group discussions, and observations. Secondary data were collected through a literature review, online articles, photos, and video studies of the pilkades process. The findings of this study show the practice of money politics carried out by “snipers,” whose job is to distribute envelopes containing money from house to house from night to dawn one day prior to election day. In addition, candidates also provide assistance and facilities to the community to get their votes. The success team also uses the services of shamans by spreading flowers in certain areas with the aim of spiritually binding people so as not to vote for other candidates. Responding to the competitor’s strategy, the female candidate employed the politics of conscience to empower the community, monitored the snipers of other candidates, built networks, and broke the spiritual powers
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: The Retrogression of Governance Reform and Anti-corruption Measure in Indonesia 1999–2001
Full text linkThere were high hopes that Gus Dur, after being appointed by the People Consultative Assembly (MPR) in 1999, would bring significant governance reform and more progressive anti-corruption measures for the first time because two top leaders (Gus Dur and Megawati) were from the opposition in the New Order era. This paper attempts to evaluate the governance reform and anti-corruption measures in 1999–2001. This paper argues that there was a valuable opportunity to push for further governance reforms and a bolder anti-corruption drive, as there was a legitimate political top leadership stemming from the free-and-fair election in 1999 embodied in the appointment of Gus Dur and Megawati Soekarnoputri as president and vice president, respectively, by the Consultative People Assembly (MPR). However, the political bickering and blatant competition over state resources for the election campaign in 2004 underlying Indonesia’s former government led to a setback in several governance reform areas, including judicial reform
Asymmetric Decentralization in Aceh: Institutionalization of Conflict of Interest by Elites of GAM
Full text linkThis article explains an institutionalization of conflicts in the implementation of special autonomy in Aceh Province. In general, one of the objectives of implementing the asymmetric decentralization policy is to resolve the problem of national integration between Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Government of Indonesia. However, the implementation of asymmetric decentralization in Aceh Province presents a different phenomenon. Although there is conflict resolution between GAM and the Government of Indonesia, the conflict dynamics change into a conflict of interest between GAM elites at the local level as part of the dynamics of electoral politics. This article is based on a literature study on secondary data to understand the electoral politics process has evolved to be a medium for institutionalizing conflict after the separatism movement in Aceh. This article shows that the understanding of asymmetric decentralization in Aceh Province not only served as a solution to the conflict between GAM and the Indonesian Government but also became a medium for institutionalizing conflict between GAM’s elite exponents through local elections in 2006–2017
The Myth of Civil Society’s Democratic Role: Volunteerism and Indonesian Democracy
Full text linkIs a flourishing civil society’s political activism positively correlated with the deepening of Indonesian democracy? This article addresses this question by examining the role of civil society in the 2014 presidential election in Indonesia, focusing on the collective actions of volunteer groups (known as Gerakan Relawan) that shaped both the election process and its result. While some studies on civil society activism in the 2014 presidential election suggested the connection between the role of volunteer movement and the democratic process in Indonesia, this paper suggests that the overpraised assumptions regarding the connection between civil society’s role and democratic consolidation, in the case of volunteer movement, needs to be reconsidered. This paper argues that although the activism of the volunteer movement has positively contributed to the democratic process of the 2014 election, however, realistic assessment of the volunteer movement confirms its problematic nature and the limits of volunteer activism that may contribute to the disconnection of civil society and democratic consolidation in the country
