From State to Civil Society: Transitional Justice and Democratization in Indonesia
Date
2018
Authors
Wahyuningroem, Sri Lestari
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Abstract
This thesis examines the implementation of transitional justice
measures in post-authoritarian Indonesia, starting from the
beginning of the political transition in 1998 until its
consolidation in 2009 and beyond. It does so by, first, assessing
the procedural and substantive aspects of transitional justice
implementation. Following this assessment, the thesis, second,
analyses the factors within democratic transition that either
facilitated or hindered the adoption and implementation of
transitional justice measures.
The thesis argues that state-sponsored transitional justice in
Indonesia has been successful only in terms of procedure, and
even then only problematically so, but a total failure in
substance. This outcome resulted from the nature of the political
transition in Indonesia from 1998 onwards. Indonesia’s
transition involved a combination of a rupture, or replacement,
style of transition and a compromise, or transplacement. The
replacement features motivated the government and political elite
to agree to the adoption of transitional justice measures. In the
period of transition, when it lacked political legitimacy, the
new government needed transitional justice to distance itself
from the image of the predecessor repressive regime and to gain
public trust, both domestically and internationally. However, the
transplacement nature of the political transition, which involved
bargaining between elements of the old regime and reformers,
contributed to the failure to achieve the objectives of
transitional justice.
Even though transitional justice failed at the state level, more
positive outcomes have occurred at the community and local
levels. Civil society groups and regional governments have
initiated partial transitional justice, suggesting that improving
justice outcomes can also take place from the bottom up, or from
the margins, rather than being entirely dependent upon top-down,
or state-centred initiatives.
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transitional justice, democratization, human rights, Indonesia
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Thesis (PhD)
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