Perceptions of Indonesian Politics in the Run-up to the 2009 General Election

Indonesia has had ten years of constitutional democracy since the end of the Suharto era. In 2009 the country heads again to a national election. In the lead-up period the major parties have been pressing not only to reduce the number of parties eligible to stand, but to create conditions in which a future president can only come from a major party, which is not the situation at present. At the same time, there are almost weekly reports in the Indonesian media of corruption allegations and charges against both local and national politicians. This paper considers survey and interview data on the opinions of members of the general public in Central Java about the performance of political parties and the political elite in the run-up to the 2009 election. Selected newspaper coverage of political corruption cases is also considered. Keywords: Indonesia, Politics, General public, Media, 2009 election

The Success and the Barriers to Women's Representation in Southeast Asia Between State Policies, Political Parties and Women's Movement

Inisiatif Kemitraan Asia Tenggara -- United States (IKAT-US) Component 1 -- POWER, is one of Partnership's projects that supports efforts to increase women's representation in the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Timor-Leste. One of the activities of the program is to conduct research on the success of, as well as the barriers to, increasing the representation of women. The research projects are: 1) "Women's Representation in the Parliament as Result of Different Electoral Systems: A Comparative Study in Five Southeast Asian Countries" - research and report by Ramlan Surbakti & August Mellaz 2) "The Increased Number of Female Members of Parliament: Identifying Its Origini and Obstacles in Indonesia, the Philippines and Timor-Leste" - research and report by Philips Vermonte 3) The Role of Parliamentary Women's Caucus in Promoting Women's Participation and Representation: A Case Study in Indonesia and Timor Leste" - research and report by Ani Soetjipto 4) "Patriarchal Barriers to Women's Political Participation in Southeast Asia: Lesson from the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and TimorLeste on Patriarchy and the Rise of Women's Participation in State Politics"- research and report by Adrianna Venny & Ruth Indiah Rahayu.The content of this e-Book is sourced from the above four research projects and is compiled to link the projects and to form a complete narration. These research papers are not only re-presented in this report, but also quoted in various parts. Hence, the sources for this paper are the researchers mentioned above, under the project authority of IKAT-US Component 1 and therefore the names of the researchers in this e-Book are not included in the footnote and references. With this e-Book, research data regarding women's representation in Southeast Asia can be widely circulated and easily accessed by the public, allowing it to be a source of reference for further research, education, or advocacy

How Civil Society Organizations Works Politically to Promote Pro-Poor Policies in Decentralized Indonesian Cities

This paper examines how civil society organizations (CSOs) have taken advantage of the increased opportunities created by decentralization to influence the role and functions of local administrations in urban areas of Indonesia. The paper utilizes evidence from two cities in Central Java where policies were passed that expanded health insurance coverage for the poor: Semarang (pop. 1.5 million) and Pekalongan (pop. 300,000). The paper argues that CSOs are increasingly able to influence local policy outcomes -- regardless of the leadership qualities among elected officials -- by working politically. We describe the political context of each city, which varies greatly. We provide evidence of how pro-poor advocates expanded their capital by identifying allies, building coalitions and taking advantage of critical junctures in order to influence social policy. We demonstrate how developing constituent interest in public policy has helped CSOs hold government accountable to the poor. We present a fiscal analysis of municipal revenue and spending produced by CSO partners, which illustrates both the challenges of increasing allocations, as well as the outcomes in terms of expanded coverage of health services. In conclusion, we offer implications for development programming going forward

Technology Affordance and Constraint Perspectives on Social Media Use in eParticipation : A Case Study in Indonesia

Paper I-V are not available as a part of the dissertation due to the copyright.This doctoral thesis explains the role of social media within eParticipation from the perspective of politicians in the Indonesian context using the Technology Affordance and Constraints Theory (TACT) as a lens. Previous research findings into citizens’ perceptions of social media in eParticipation have been ambivalent; namely, social media can both encourage and discourage the democratic process depending on where, when, and how it is used. Furthermore, there is little understanding of the role of social media in influencing decision-making in the democratic process from the politicians’ perspective. Thus, my research is focused on gaining a more in-depth understanding of the role of social media in eParticipation from perspective of politicians through three main research questions: (1) How do politicians use social media for eParticipation purposes? (2) What are the constraints of social media use within eParticipation? and (3) What are the conditions needed for social media affordance acutalization to take place?publishedVersio

The strength of lobbying and advocacy

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.CCC_2014_Report_Netherlands_strength_of_lobbying.pdf: 255 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

NEGATIVE POLITENESS EMPLOYED BY NAJWA SHIHAB IN MATA NAJWA ‘HABIBIE HARI INI’

Mata Najwa is one of the most popular talk shows in Metro TV. It is lead by Najwa Shihab, a senior journalist who has been recognized as the best journalist in Metro TV. In Mata Najwa special episode ‘Habibie Hari Ini, she invited BJ Habibie, the third President of Indonesia to talk about democracy between past and now. This research is aimed to know what and how the negative politeness applied by Najwa Shihab. Thus, it is also aimed to find out why she applied those strategies. The data were taken by making transcription and analyzed with Brown and Levinson politeness theory especially for the negative politeness. The result showed that there were only nine strategies applied by Najwa Shihab. The reasons why she applied those strategies were to fit the formal talk show to imply as this talk show has more quality. The other reason, Najwa wanted to give some respect to BJ Habibie

The Political Campaign Industry and the Emergence of Social Media in Post-authoritarian Indonesian Electoral Politics

This dissertation analyses the emergence of social media for electoral campaigning in post-authoritarian Indonesia. Using a critical political economy perspective, it examines the interactions between social media, the political campaign industry, which is understood as a product of “the cross-development of political and commercial persuasion techniques in the 20th century” (Stockwell, 2000, p. 3), and electoral players. This thesis evaluates how the political campaign industry intersects with social media-enabled production and distribution of campaign messages (content), audience (users) mobilisation and labour organisation. It also assesses the impact of the political campaign industry’s social media work upon the web of relations between candidates, donors and voters during electoral periods. The findings confirm that social media has enabled the growing Indonesian political campaign industry to develop social media campaigning services that have been adopted widely in Indonesian elections. These findings contradict previous studies that have suggested that social media contribute to the nurturance of democracy in contemporary Indonesia by enabling citizens to discuss alternative issues to elite-generated ones carried by conventional media (Nuswantoro, 2014; Suaedy, 2014). By contrast, this dissertation demonstrates that during electoral campaign periods social media were not autonomous from heavy industry-driven engineering. Instead, social media enabled the political campaign industry to further encroach upon Indonesian electoral politics and thereby generate greater profits for the industry. These strategies were made possible because social media electoral campaigning serves not only as practical tool of persuasion but also a new mechanism to manage the temporary converging interests of political, economic and cultural forces during electoral campaign periods. Put differently, with the assistance of the political campaign industry, Indonesian political economy elites have been able to capture social media to safeguard their social ascendancy through competitive elections

Electoral reform in Asia: institutional engineering against "money politics"

This paper argues that the concept of intraparty competition – as opposed to interparty competition – provides the most useful lens through which to understand recent cases of electoral reform in East Asia. Various democracies in the region have over the past two decades replaced ‘extreme’ systems on the intraparty dimension with more moderate types. Pressure for reform built up as these systems were increasingly blamed for a number of social ills, such as "money politics" and economic mismanagement. The paper will conclude by arguing that the effect of electoral reform has been rather limited. In particular, particularistic strategies of voter mobilization – such as clientelism and vote buying – remain an important electoral tool for many politicians