2 - POLITICS: INDONESIA'S YEAR OF ELECTIONS AND THE END OF THE POLITICAL TRANSITION

Summary

When Indonesia's long-time authoritarian ruler Soeharto was overthrown in May 1998, the country embarked on a period of tumultuous political change. Governments rose and fell, dramatic reform of virtually all major state institutions began, new political movements proliferated, and violent conflicts broke out in several parts of the archipelago. The year 2004, I contend in this survey, marks the end of this period of rapid political flux. The lengthy electoral cycle that dominated the year's politics demonstrated that Indonesia's new political system is settling solidly into place. The April legislative election was the second to be held since the fall of Soeharto, and it passed remarkably smoothly, with relatively little violence or electoral fraud. The direct presidential elections that followed in two rounds in July and September realised one of the major promises of the reformasi era: for the first time in Indonesia's history, the population directly elected its head of state.

In place of the unpredictability and turmoil of the immediate post-Soeharto period, we now see the advent of an era of what might be called ‘normalised’ democratic politics, characterised by the atomisation of voters, greater fluidity of political affiliation, dominance of professional strata, modern techniques and big money. The media and the politics of personality and image dominate, exemplified by the election as president of arguably the most media-savvy politician of his generation, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The very orderliness of the election, including the sense of alienation and boredom felt by many voters, confirmed that elections are seen by the majority as the sole legitimate means to change government. No major political force seriously questioned the legitimacy of the 2004 elections or threatened to overturn their results. Developments outside the electoral arena confirm the general picture; for instance, the various communal and other violent conflicts that marked the immediate post-Soeharto years continued to decline in intensity.