インドネシアにおける「犯罪との戦い」

Abstract

Indonesia is widely regarded as a hotbed of transnational violent crime in Southeast Asia. Terrorists and criminal rings have developed cross-border networks rooted in Indonesia. These ‘non-state actors’ quickly emerged as major concerns for post-Suharto governments, posing serious threats to the national security and economy. In response, various ‘wars on crimes’ have been initiated in the name of combating these threats. This article aims to elucidate the politics behind the making of these ‘wars’ by examining the ‘war on drugs’ led by the police (and the national narcotics agency) and the ‘war on terrorism’ orchestrated by the army. I argue that the threat is undoubtedly real, but war campaigns are designed to promote a political strategy of instrumentalizing the threat of transnational violent crime. With this strategy, both the police and the army were able to deflect criticism, reclaim ground lost during the democratization movement, and articulate this revanchism in the legitimizing vernacular of ‘global wars.’ In this sense these security actors are hijacking the ‘violence of non-state actors’ as a Trojan horse to regain power, build budgets, strengthen institutions and undermine reform pressures.