It sometimes seems that there is little space for progressive politics in today’s Indonesia
Edward Aspinall
Workers of Indonesia unite!Henri Ismail/Poros Photo |
For more than 45 years, Indonesia has been a country without a powerful left. In the mid-1960s, the military and its fellow-travellers eliminated the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party) and its allies in a tremendous bloodbath. Over thirty years of extreme anti-communist vigilance followed under President Suharto’s ‘New Order’ regime, resulting in the proscription of virtually all forms of left-wing politics.
The legacies of these years of repression have been hard to shake. In the late New Order years, radical politics began to revive, and there was a fluorescence of activism after the regime collapsed in 1998. Instead of bringing radical social change, however, it often seems that Indonesia’s democracy is just as dominated by the rich and the powerful as was the old regime. Capitalism is booming, and left-wing forces internationally – especially in the surrounding Southeast Asian region – have been in long retreat.
In Indonesia, groups aiming at the empowerment of the poor, redistribution, and greater social justice are cast into shadow by the spectacles of money politics and corruption that play out at the centre. They are often kept there by the politics of intimidation and thuggery that occur in the gloomy margins of Indonesian political life. Conservative brands of religious and ethnic politics seem to have greater appeal to poor people than do groups that organise on a class basis and call for social equality.
But is the picture as gloomy as this diagnosis implies? One doesn’t have to try too hard to locate left-wing groups in Indonesia, even if they mostly are on the fringes. There have been large mobilisations of poor people in pursuit of a myriad of social and political goals, from agrarian reform to social security. Radical groups may be small and fragmented, but they are also energetic. And the influence of the left may be greater than it appears. Some ideas associated with the left – such as the call for social justice – are embedded at the very heart of Indonesian politics.
The authors in this special edition of Inside Indonesia adopt very different perspectives on, and present very different answers to, the question, ‘where is the left?’ Edward Aspinall provides an overview of the politics of the left in contemporary Indonesia. While presenting a diagnosis of its weakness and fragmentation, he also points to areas in which its call for social equality – such as in the provision of better healthcare for poor people – are leaving a real mark. Jeffrey A Winters, takes aim directly at the heart of oligarchic dominance in Indonesia’s political system. He explains how the super-rich dominate the selection of Indonesian presidents, and asks whether it might be possible for progressive forces to put forward an independent candidate. He discusses the possibilities of a ‘People’s Congress’ as one pathway for achieving this goal.
Next, two authors consider the new politics of the two great social classes – workers and peasants – on which the old left always pinned its hopes. Benny Juliawan considers the current state of the working class. He concedes that, organisationally, labour unions are weak and have not lived up to the early promise of post-Suharto politics. But he points to a new political culture of working-class protest that reclaims public space and challenges the authorities in the name of labour power. Dianto Bachriadi, in presenting an analysis of rural conflict, peasant unions and land occupations in the post- Suharto period, sees many historical parallels to the politics of agrarian struggle that characterised the pre-1965 left. Peasant unions have had difficulties in consolidating their movement at the national level, but they have recorded many achievements locally.
Finally, two more contributors provide different perspectives on how legacies of the old left are playing out in contemporary Indonesia. Vedi R. Hadiz finds evidence that right-wing Islamist groups are moving into many of the rural communities of Central Java that were once base areas of the PKI. They draw their strength in part from the same social marginalisation and inequalities that once underpinned the communist movement in these villages. Katherine McGregor interviews a survivor from the old left, and asks for his diagnosis of contemporary Indonesia. While he maintains his political commitment and optimism, he sees much that dismays him in the social inequalities and corruption that characterise the new age.
Edward Aspinall (edward.aspinall@anu.edu.au) researches Indonesian politics at the Department of Political and Social Change, Australian National University and is a coordinating editor of Inside Indonesia.
