The Ironies of Instability in Indonesia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 18976017 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dan Slater (0000-0002-1079-7952, University of Chicago, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2006-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Analysis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0155-977X • E-ISSN: 1558-5727 |
| Publisher | Berghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.3167/015597706780886067 |
| OpenAlex | W1977248149 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
Indonesia seems perpetually condemned to live in interesting times, as the famous Chinese curse goes. The past decade has seen the country attract global notoriety as a land of recurrent economic shocks, ethnic conflicts, terrorist bombings, sepa ratist rebellions, and natural catastrophes. Political authorities have appeared too corrupt and inept to respond effectively. Thus, when Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), a retired general, scored a landslide victory in Indonesia's first-ever direct presidential election in September 2004, the political rise of a military man was widely portrayed as a small blow for stability in a highly unstable nation. This essay ventures the argument that—at least at the level of elite poli tics—precisely the opposite is true. The recent behavior of Indonesia's parties, parliaments, and presidents reveals that elite politics has been characterized by too much stability rather than too little. This is because the elite figures who belatedly connived in the toppling of former presidents Suharto in 1998 and Habibie in 1999 managed thereafter to construct something of a political cartel (Slater 2004). Like a cartel of private companies, this cartel of political elites has served to protect its leading members from outside competition. Indonesia's pre-eminent political figures have remained practically irremovable through the electoral process, even though elections themselves have been commendably free and fair. Unafraid of being removed from power, political leaders have faced little impetus to govern. From this perspective, the government has failed to deal with Indonesia's ongoing social and economic crises not because politi cal elites could not get their act together, but because they could. That elite stability has fostered Indonesia's festering socio-economic instabil ity is the first irony I explore here. The second is that the election of a much stronger individual figure as president has ironically destabilized, not stabilized
Geography · Instability · Mechanics · Physics · Political instability · Political science · Politics · Asian Studies and History · Law
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| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,47 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2015 (5) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |