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    Arbitrary Detention in Indonesia: Buru Prison Island, 1969-1979
    Setiawan, KMP (BRILL, 2022-01-01)
    Between 1969 and 1979 Indonesia'.s New Order regime consigned some 12,000 leftist political prisoners to a penal settlement on the island of Buru in eastern Indonesia. The prisoners were sent there without trial as part of a mass detention campaign undertaken by the state security organisation, Kopkamtib. Once on the island, they were expected to create a new, viable settlement by clearing jungle and planting crops. The authorities had no intention of releasing the prisoners, but rather expected then to settle on the island for good. In order to enhance the '.normalcy'. of the settlement, the authorities persuaded and coerced the families of some prisoners to move to Buru. Although conditions were better in Savanajaya, the settlement allocated to families, than in other parts of the penal colony, the family members of detainees were subject to many of the same rules of detention. Prisoners and their families suffered both from difficult conditions on Buru and from harsh ill-treatment by camp guards. Under international pressure, the New Order regime dismantled the settlement in 1979, and most of the detainees returned to Java.
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    Vulnerable but Resilient: Indonesia in an Age of Democratic Decline
    Setiawan, KMP (Routledge, 2022-11-25)
    Recent years have seen a consensus emerging that Indonesian democracy is in regression. Nonetheless, there continue to be developments that point towards Indonesia’s democratic resilience. This article examines key events of the past year that support resilience, including the passing of the landmark Law on Sexual Violence, the rejection of rumoured plans to extend President Joko Widodo’s term in office and a moderation of polarisation. At the same time, Indonesian democracy remains vulnerable, illustrated by legal developments that undermine executive accountability, ongoing militarisation in Papua, as well as persistent pressure in areas of freedom of expression and minority rights. The article will conclude with an examination of Jokowi’s efforts to secure his presidential legacy, particularly through infrastructure development and foreign policy. The article identifies two sources for democratic resilience—public opinion and elite support—and argues that while democratic decline continues, the process of regression is more uneven than commonly emphasised in assessments of Indonesian politics.
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    Ordinary Laws and Extraordinary Crimes: Criminalising Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity in the Draft Criminal Code?
    Setiawan, K ; Lindsey, T ; Pausacker, H (Routledge, 2020)
    Every Thursday since 2007, survivors of human rights violations, their family members and representatives of human rights organisations gather in front of the Presidential Palace in Jakarta. After the end of authoritarianism in 1998, Indonesia witnessed many political and legal reforms. The failures of the Indonesian human rights system are perhaps best demonstrated by the fact that twenty years after the fall of authoritarianism, justice is yet to be delivered for crimes committed under the repressive regime of President Soeharto. Until legislative reform in the area of human rights took place after 1998, Indonesian law included very few provisions for the protection of human rights in general. Legal provisions criminalising serious human rights crimes were absent altogether. The proposed inclusion of gross human rights violations in the Draft Criminal Code has been mainly driven by a desire to fully codify Indonesian criminal law, rather than to improve the prosecution of serious human rights crimes.
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    Arbitrary Detention in Indonesia: Buru Island, 1969-1979
    Setiawan, K ; Cribb, R ; Twomey, C ; Wilson, S (Brill, 2022)
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    Politics in Contemporary Indonesia: Institutional Change, Policy Challenges and Democratic Decline
    Setiawan, KMP ; Tomsa, D (Routledge, 2022-01-01)
    In Politics in Contemporary Indonesia, Ken M.P. Setiawan and Dirk Tomsa analyse the most prominent political ideas, institutions, interests and issues that shape Indonesian politics today. Guided by the overarching question whether Indonesia still deserves its famous label as a ‘model Muslim democracy’, the book argues that the most serious threats to Indonesian democracy emanate from the fading appeal of democracy as a compelling narrative, the increasingly brazen capture of democratic institutions by predatory interests, and the narrowing public space for those who seek to defend the values of democracy. In so doing, the book answers the following key questions: • What are the dominant political narratives that underpin Indonesian politics? • How has Indonesia’s institutional framework evolved since the onset of democratisation in 1998? • How do competing political interests weaken or strengthen Indonesian democracy? • How does declining democracy affect Indonesia’s prospects for dealing with its main policy challenges? • How does Indonesia compare to other Muslim-majority states and to its regional neighbours? Up-to-date, comprehensive and written in an accessible style, this book will be of interest for both students and scholars of Indonesian politics, Asian Studies, Comparative Politics and International Relations.
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    Implementing the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Insights from Indonesia
    Rosser, A ; Macdonald, K ; Setiawan, KMP (JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV PRESS, 2022-02-01)
    Following the endorsement of the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in 2011, attention has shifted towards challenges of implementation. Through detailed analysis of the case of Indo-nesia, this article analyses the conditions under which implementation oc-curs and explores strategies for strengthened implementation. While UNGP implementation has often been argued to depend on strong collaborative learning networks, we demonstrate instead that power balances between rights coalitions and politico-business and technocratic elites have proved decisive—implementation varying across sectors and over time depending on configurations of market power, histories of rights struggles, and patterns of high-level political support.
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    Struggling for justice in post-authoritarian states: human rights protest in Indonesia
    Setiawan, KMP (ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2022-03-16)
    Protests can play a crucial role in contributing to social change. In many countries that have transitioned from authoritarian to more democratic forms of governance, protests have demanded accountability for human rights crimes. This article focuses on Indonesia’s longest-running human rights protest, Kamisan. This protest is contrasted with one of the most recognisable human rights protests internationally–the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina–on which Kamisan was based. The article asks why these similar protest movements have had vastly different impacts–whereas the protest of the Mothers has generated human rights reform, this remains elusive in Indonesia. The article uses an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on theories of human rights change and social movements, and combines this with a focus on the specific historical, social and political contexts in which both protests have developed. Drawing on the Argentinean experience, the article argues that human rights protests are influenced by possibilities for activism in repressive regimes, the nature of democratic transition and political culture. These factors illustrate that ultimately the success of human rights protest is contingent on the balance of social and political forces in a given context.
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    Perjalanan Perempuan dalam Menggerakkan Perubahan: Aksi Kolektif Perempuan dan Pelaksanaan Undang-undang Desa di Indonesia.
    Setiawan, K ; Beech Jones, BA ; Diprose, R ; Savirani, A ; Setiawan, K ; Beech Jones, B ; Diprose, R ; Savirani, A (The Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (MAMPU), The University of Melbourne and Universitas Gadjah Mada, 2020-12-23)
    This peer-reviewed edited volume of women's life stories draws on detailed ethnographic research of village women's lived experiences and how they, individually and collectively, have taken action to influence village development in Indonesia's multi-level governance structure under the new Village Law in Indonesia. The analysis identifies the processes of women's empowerment, their involvement in grassroots women’s collective action, engagement with civil society organisations, and how women influence village institutions, policies, development spending and priorities, and new projects as well as social norms in communities. The analysis draws from detailed qualitative research, including in-depth interviews with women, conducted during long stays in a variety of villages in Indonesia. The individual stories reflect a feminist research approach in foregrounding women’s voices and draws out the complex processes that women go through and the barriers that they have to overcome to exercise voice and influence in village development. These life stories show how women navigate the constraints on gender inclusion and women’s empowerment. Through the analysis we see how change can happen in Indonesia, despite entrenched patriarchal norms and limited women’s representation in governance institutions and other structures of power and decision making. The volume is available in Bahasa Indonesia and English.