The Expansion of Emergency Powers

Social Conflict and the Military in Indonesia

Bibliographic Data

ID12349152
AuthorsMira Crouch (0000-0001-9821-1209, The University of New South Wales, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume41
Issue3
Pages459-475
Publication date2017-06-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAsian Studies Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1035-7823 • E-ISSN: 1467-8403
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10357823.2017.1332005
OpenAlexW2624874530
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited31

The exercise of emergency powers is always controversial. This article identifies the expansion of the type and scope of emergency powers through legislative reform. It does so by examining the Indonesian Law on Social Conflict 2012, which allows a state of social conflict to be declared at the national, regional or local level in response to social conflict, such as conflict between religious or ethnic communities. The deliberate choice of the term “state of social conflict”, rather than “state of emergency”, is an attempt to obscure the nature of these powers. Analysis of these powers and the debate that has ensued suggests that the law expands the types of situation in which powers usually only reserved for an emergency are used, and by delegating this power to local authorities, the law in effect amounts to the expansion of emergency powers. I suggest that this should lead to renewed focus on meaningful limits and checks on the exercise of power during times of emergency

Armed conflict · Development economics · Economics · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Asian Studies and History · Law · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies