Solidarity for Solidarity: How the Indonesian Activists Gained Momentum for National Reformation (Reformasi) through Participating in the Transnational Solidarity Movement for East Timorese Self-Determination, 1995–99

Abstract

Suharto’s New Order regime generated opposition among several quarters of Indonesian society, some of whom called for its democratization. The decision to annex Timor-Leste was also opposed by many, not least by significant numbers of the East Timorese themselves. However. Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmão acknowledged that “The struggle for democratic reform in Indonesia and the fight in Timor-Leste have different agendas but the same enemy”, who drove both behind bars. This article discusses how halfway through the 1990s, the New Order’s penitentiaries became the breeding ground of a Timorese-Indonesian solidarity movement that both sought democratic reform in Indonesia and self-determination of East Timor. While incarcerated together, they came to formulate a single agenda against “human right violations” that stretched beyond the predominantly local concerns that had characterized their earlier demonstrations.