Full-text in four pdf files available at
http://thesis.anu.edu.au/public/adt-ANU20010702.113537/
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Australian Digital Theses Program
Thesis Details
Title Political Opposition and the Transition from Authoritarian Rule:
The Case of Indonesia
Author Aspinall, Edward Thomas
Institution The Australian National University
Date 2000
Abstract This thesis presents a study of political opposition in the
decade leading to the end
of President Suharto's New Order regime in Indonesia. In particular it
focuses on the contribution
of opposition forces to the process of political democratisation and the
interplay in that process
between societal/opposition initiative and disunity within the governing
elite. � Following the
literature on authoritarian regimes, the study proposes a typology of
opposition: illegal, semi,
alegal and proto-opposition. Each of these are responses to the combination
of repression and
pluralism typical of authoritarianism. Although a mood of discontent was
apparently ubiquitous in
the later years of Suharto's rule, opposition remained dispersed through a
wide range of
institutions and was structurally weak. Much of it was located along the
blurred boundary between
state and society. � The study focuses on the period of limited
liberalisation (keterbukaan,
'openness') between approximately 1989 and 1994. Following the mainstream
democratisation
literature, the thesis concludes that conflict within the governing elite
(in this case between a
substantial section of the Armed Forces leadership and the President and his
camp) was an important
pre-condition for the limited loosening of political controls from 1989.
>From the outset, however,
societal agency played an important role in conditioning the emergence of
nascent 'soft-line' reform
groups within the regime. � In a series of case studies (elite dissident
groups, Non-Governmental
Organisations, student dissent and the Indonesian Democracy Party, PDI) I
examine the methods by
which opposition groups responded to divisions within the governing elite
and made use of the
opportunities thus afforded them to expand the scope of political action. In
a process typical of
authoritarian regimes which initiate liberalisation, in the years after 1989
an escalation of
opposition mobilisation took place. � However, by the mid-1990s, President
Suharto was able to
reassert control over the ruling elite, especially the army, facilitating a
retreat from
liberalisation policies. Increasing 'sultanisation' of the regime undermined
its legitimacy and
precluded a resolution of its political problems, especially the succession
issue, from within the
ruling elite. After the economic collapse of 1997-98, in a 'sequence of
disaffection' typical of
regimes where the hard-line element is strong, a society-initiated process
of regime change began.
Mobilisation, pioneered by the most politicised groups (notably university
students), propelled
other social and political forces into action, and stimulated the final
fracturing of the ruling
elite and the abandonment of Suharto by a substantial part of it. The legacy
of authoritarian rule,
however, meant that opposition remained structurally weak and divided,
allowing for the replacement
of Suharto's government by a reconstituted version of it.
Thesis 01front.pdf 39.2 Kb
02Chapters1-5.pdf 650.4 Kb
03Chapters6-10.pdf 825.4 Kb
04GlossaryBibliography.pdf 200.2 Kb
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