Power and Political Culture in Suharto's Indonesia: The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) and Decline of the New Order (1986-98)

Front Cover
NIAS Press, 2004 - History - 352 pages

Under Indonesia's 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.

 

Contents

Questions and Perspectives
1
Parties and Political Culture in TwentiethCentury Indonesia
23
The Foundations of New Order Political Culture
44
The PDI 197386
63
Pancasila Democracy and Sukarno Revival in the 1987 Election
78
Openness and the Turn to Opposition 198792
105
A Populist Opposition? The PDI in the 1992 Election
141
The 1993 MPR Session
171
The Democratic Party and Party Democracy
193
The PDI under Megawati
223
The Deposing of Megawati
245
From the 1997 Election to the Fall of Suharto
278
Conclusion
291
Bibliography
309
Index
332
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Bibliographic information