Indonesian Constitutional Reform: Muddling Towards Democracy

Abstract

Since Soeharto’s fall in 1998, Indonesia has amended its previously ‘sacred’ Constitution of 1945 four times but the process is still far from complete. The problem is how to rewrite an authoritarian, anti-democratic and simplistic statute into a sophisticated democratic document? The democratic ideal is agreed as the objective but there is little agreement as to what that might look like. Further, none of the political protagonists can muster a decisive majority, so compromise and an uneven, patchwork approach are inevitable. To move from authoritarianism, the executive and legislature - the groups that ultimately control the reform process - must divest significant power. Recognising this,..