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25 years of reforms: Indonesia’s democracy back on slippery slope
Twenty-five years after the fall of the autocratic New Order regime, hard-won civil liberties are under attack as the military eyes a return to prominence and past rights abuses are left unsolved.
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A student walks past the May 12 Reformation Park in Grogol, West Jakarta, in this file photo taken in 2020. The park was built in memory of the four students who were killed in a peace rally demanding reforms in May 1998. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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wenty-five years since the start of the Reform era, which had carried the hopes for democracy and stronger civil rights, the nation finds itself in a familiar position, with renewed efforts to bring back what observers fear to be the hallmarks of the autocratic New Order regime.
Beginning on May 12, 1998, Jakarta was consumed by ten days of racially-charged rioting that shook the entire country, sparked by a student-led peace march that went awry. Four Trisakti University students were shot to death by security apparatus and chaos ensued.
Soeharto eventually stepped down on May 21 that year, and the Indonesian armed forces crucially stepped away from their role in civilian affairs, allowing democracy to flourish.
But now, hard-won civil liberties are under attack and the Indonesian Military (TNI) eyes a return to prominence through a proposed revision to a law that, if passed, may see even more active and retired military officers enter politics and the civilian bureaucracy.
“The democracy we fought for is one where the TNI is responsible solely for protecting the nation’s sovereignty from foreign threats,” Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid told The Jakarta Post.
“But if the military is allowed once again to return [to public office], it will become a threat to the country’s democracy, since it puts soldiers back in front of the people,” said Usman, who was a Trisakti student at the time of the riots.
The proposed TNI Law revision is the latest attempt, activists say, to further entrench the military in civilian life, following last year’s move by the Home Ministry to install active and retiring officers as interim regional leaders in a process that many had deemed lacking in transparency.
