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ItemNo Preview AvailableArbitrary Detention in Indonesia: Buru Prison Island, 1969-1979(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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ItemVulnerable but Resilient: Indonesia in an Age of Democratic Decline(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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ItemNo Preview AvailableArbitrary Detention in Indonesia: Buru Island, 1969-1979(Brill, 2022)
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ItemPolitics in Contemporary Indonesia: Institutional Change, Policy Challenges and Democratic Decline(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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ItemImplementing the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Insights from Indonesia(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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ItemStruggling for justice in post-authoritarian states: human rights protest in Indonesia(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.