Conceptual filters and obfuscation in the study of Indonesian politics

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. Feith, 1962 Feith, Herb. 1962. The decline of constitutional democracy in Indonesia, Ithaca: Cornell University Press. [Google Scholar]. Harry J. Benda's review, ‘Democracy in Indonesia’, is in the Journal of Asian Studies, May 1964, pp. 449-56; Feith's response, ‘History, Theory, and Indonesian Politics: A Reply to Harry J. Benda’, appeared in the JAS, February 1965, pp. 305-12. The Benda and Feith pieces were reprinted in Anderson and Kahin, 1982 Anderson, Benedict and Kahin, Audrey. 1982. Interpreting Indonesian politics: Thirteen contributions to the debate, 1964–1981, Edited by: Anderson, Benedict and Kahin, Audrey. Ithaca: Cornell Modern Indonesian Project. [Google Scholar]. 2. ‘The Idea of Power in Javanese Culture’, in Holt, 1972 Holt, Claire. 1972. Culture and politics in Indonesia, Edited by: Holt, Claire. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]. 3. Lying in the shadows of this argument are some questions that deserve attention here. I am particularly grateful to David Jenkins for raising them. One issue is whether the post-revolutionary Indonesian political elite, capable as it was but quite small, could have sustained its position even if local rebellion and international intrusion were absent. Might the Communist Party (PKI) eventually have won out electorally? Or might the army, without the advantage of the rebellion as an excuse, have ultimately taken control anyway? We cannot know, of course, but these are questions that need to be addressed in any effort to rethink post-revolutionary history. On the PKI matter, the party had increased its vote substantially in the regional elections of 1957, greatly worrying the PNI, Masjumi, Nahdlatul Ulama, PSI, Catholics, Protestants, and no doubt others. More than anything else, it was probably these results that led most of the major parties to support postponing the national elections scheduled for 1959, which removed a significant barrier to Guided Democracy. For whatever the conjecture is worth, however, I doubt that the PKI could have come anywhere close to a majority in national elections, in which case it would have been limited to something like the positions of Communist parties in Italy and France at about the same time. The far more serious problem was the army, which had more choices of political strategy, in part because several parties were willing to lend it support in containing or destroying the PKI. Without the PRRI/Permesta, US approval, and support from major parties, would General Nasution or other officers have undertaken a coup rather than merely threatening one? 4. Recently the senior American political scientist Robert A. Dahl has published a brief consideration of the critical question, How Democratic is the American Constitution (Dahl, 2002 Dahl, Robert A. 2002. How democratic is the American constitution?, New Haven: Yale University Press. [Google Scholar]). Not very, he thinks, but it is worth asking whether it was ever intended to be, or if it was, by what definitions of democracy, which opens up a large number of uncomfortable questions about exactly what those who believe they have a democracy mean by it. 5. See the recently published biography of Indonesia's Chief Public Prosecutor, R. Soeprapto, by Iip D. Yahya, 2004 Yahya, Iip D. 2004. Mengadili Menteri Memeriksa Perwira: Jaksa Agung Soeprapto dan Penegakan Hukum di Indonesia, Periodde 1950–1959, Jakarta: Gramedia. [Google Scholar]. 6. On the Indonesian judiciary from the 1950s through the present, but also on the evolution of the legal system generally, see the extraordinary work by Sebastiaan Pompe, 2005 Pompe, Sebastiaan. 2005. The Indonesian Supreme Court: A study of institutional collapse, Ithaca: Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publications. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]. 7. The United States ended the connection between American and Indonesian armed forces after 1992 in response to human rights violations in East Timor, but in 2005 the relationship was restored, in large part because of Washington's new concern with terrorism. Congressional criticism of human rights problems in the Indonesian army may yet lead to restrictions on US aid, but the Bush administration has made clear its interest in moving ahead.