Power and Political Culture in Suharto’s Indonesia: The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) and the Decline of the New Order (1986–98) (NIAS Studies in Contemporary Asian History)

In the mid-1990s, the formerly pliant Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) was transformed into an active opposition party by Megawati Sukarnoputri (now President of Indonesia). The subsequent backlash from the Suharto regime ultimately led to its downfall. BOOK COVER......Page 1 HALF-TITLE......Page 2 TITLE......Page 4 COPYRIGHT......Page 5 CONTENTS......Page 6 PREFACE......Page 7 NOTE ON ORTHOGRAPHY AND TRANSLATION......Page 11 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS......Page 12 INTRODUCTION......Page 15 POLITICAL CULTURE AND ITS CONTESTATION......Page 18 POLITICAL CULTURE, HEGEMONY AND CONTESTATION......Page 22 THEORY AND THE CRISIS IN INDONESIAN STUDIES......Page 25 SOURCES AND THEIR INTERPRETATION......Page 28 OBJECT AND PERIOD UNDER STUDY......Page 31 NOTES......Page 33 POLITICAL PARTIES IN INDONESIA: PREVIOUS RESEARCH......Page 37 UNIFYING NATIONALISM AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE INDONESIAN STATE......Page 40 POLITICAL PARTIES: FROM DOMINANCE TO DECLINE......Page 46 NOTES......Page 54 THE NEW ORDER TAKES POWER......Page 58 THE EMASCULATION OF THE POLITICAL PARTIES AND THE 1971 ELECTION......Page 62 THE RISE OF STATE CORPORATISM......Page 68 NOTES......Page 73 CHAPTER 4 From Merger to Nadir: The PDI 1973-86......Page 77 NOTES......Page 89 FACING THE 1987 ELECTION......Page 92 OLD AND NEW CAMPAIGN THEMES......Page 95 SUKARNO, HISTORY AND THE NEW ORDER......Page 99 SUKARNO AND THE 1987 ELECTION......Page 102 AFTERMATH OF THE ELECTIONS: SUKARNO AND SOCIAL DISCONTENT......Page 106 CONCLUSIONS......Page 110 NOTES......Page 112 REGIME TENSIONS, OPENNESS AND MILITARY RAPPROCHEMENT......Page 119 THE 1988 MPR SESSION......Page 122 POLICY MAKING AND THE TURN TO OPPOSITION......Page 131 INTERNAL DISPUTES......Page 136 PARLIAMENTARY POLITICS AHEAD OF THE 1992 ELECTION......Page 143 CONCLUSIONS......Page 146 NOTES......Page 148 MILITARY RAPPROCHEMENT......Page 155 THE SORTING OUT OF CANDIDATES......Page 158 REREVIVING SUKARNO......Page 163 THE PDI CAMPAIGN......Page 166 CONFRONTING PRESIDENT SUHARTO......Page 171 ELECTION RESULTS AND PROTESTS......Page 173 CONCLUSIONS......Page 178 NOTES......Page 179 FIGHTING FOR REFORM......Page 185 THE PDI AND THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION......Page 189 ACCOMMODATION AND INTERRUPTION......Page 197 CONCLUSIONS......Page 202 NOTES......Page 203 ‘ASAL BUKAN SOERJADI’......Page 208 THE 1993 MEDAN CONGRESS......Page 212 TOWARDS THE SURABAYA EXTRAORDINARY CONGRESS......Page 216 THE SURABAYA EXTRAORDINARY CONGRESS......Page 222 MANOEUVRINGS FOR PARTY LEADERSHIP......Page 227 CONCLUSIONS......Page 230 NOTES......Page 232 MEGAWATI, SUKARNO AND ‘ARUS BAWAH’......Page 238 PARTY REINVIGORATION AND GOVERNMENT HARASSMENT......Page 242 CONCLUSIONS......Page 253 NOTES......Page 255 BETWEEN OPPOSITION AND COMPLIANCE......Page 260 STAGING MEGAWATI’S REMOVAL......Page 266 THE MEDAN CONGRESS AND POLITICAL ETHICS......Page 273 SYMBOL OF OPPOSITION AND THE 27 JULY 1996 RIOTS......Page 277 CONCLUSIONS......Page 285 NOTES......Page 287 THE 1997 GENERAL ELECTION......Page 293 FROM ECONOMIC TO POLITICAL CRISIS......Page 298 CONCLUSIONS......Page 303 NOTES......Page 304 CHAPTER 13 Conclusion......Page 306 THE ICONISING OF NATIONAL SYMBOLS......Page 307 PANCASILA DEMOCRACY: AN ELITIST UTOPIA?......Page 309 MORAL EROSION OF THE NEW ORDER......Page 313 ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE ETHICS OF POWER......Page 315 INDEPENDENT PARTY OR CORPORATIST INSTITUTION?......Page 316 SUKARNO, MEGAWATI AND THE LIMITS OF POLITICAL ENGINEERING......Page 319 THE LEGACIES OF THE NEW ORDER’S POLITICAL CULTURE......Page 322 BOOKS AND ARTICLES......Page 324 NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS......Page 346 ONLINE MEDIA AND NEWS SERVICES......Page 347 Index......Page 348 Under Indonesias authoritarian New Order regime, the continued existence of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) was meant to demonstrate the ostensibly democratic character of the regime. In essence, this small nationalist-Christian coalition was meant to fill the role of pliant state corporatist party. From the later 1980s, however, the PDI became more openly critical of government policies and came to stand out as the major proponent of reform within the formal politica system. The government responded in 1996 by engineering the removal of the populat Megwati Sukarnoputri as PDI leader, a move that significantly damaged the popular legitimacy and moral standing of the regime. Against this background, the book assesses broader questions of political culture, political participation, regime maintenance and opposition in the late Suharto era. The political culture perspective provides a fresh understanding of politics under the New Order and its influence on the systems of power and political relations in post-Suharto Indonesia. This text assesses broad questions of political culture, political participation, regime maintenance and opposition in the late Suharto era in Indonesia.