Questioning Reform, Democracy and the Rule of Law in Indonesia (The Socio-History Perspective for Rule of Law Study in Indonesia)

Abstract

Why do our Reformation and Democracy continue to be corrupted and experience such sad decline and setbacks? National University of Singapore academic Dr. Jamie S. Davidson (2019) answers by explaining that from the beginning, the Reformation in Indonesia was not driven by a "revolutionary renewal" force that completely overthrew the old order and implemented total renewal within it. Meanwhile, our reformation and democracy experienced stagnation and regression, harming the people in their efforts to realize emancipation and community participation to achieve social justice, general welfare, and equality. Prof. Richard Robison even stated that very few strong reformers emerged on the radar screen for change after Suharto's New Order in 1998. The faltering of reform is made all the more apparent by the lack of real role and oversight of these reformers themselves. And this is partly due to our own mistakes, the reformers who allowed everything to unfold in the unequal political-economic struggle between neoliberal capitalists and marginalized popular forces. In the era of democracy and reform that has been corrupted for 20 years, Indonesia is a real battleground between the strong economic classes (Oligarchs-Plutocrats) versus the weak social classes who are increasingly poor and marginalized. Robison also observed that the Indonesian business sector may fund politics, but it is completely incapable of organizing a party in its own interests to seize power.