Departemen Politik dan Pemerintahan

This article attempts to map out the current situation of democracy in Indonesia, especially at local levels. This map is based on a simple question: the extent to which 10 years of the democratization process in Indonesia has led the country closer towards effective democratic governance. It concludes that an effective democratic government is far from being realized. Moreover, this article shows a paradox in the development of local politics in Indonesia, on the one hand there has been political liberalization which is assumed as a prerequisite for the realization of democratic governance, but on the other hand, the development of local democracy in Indonesia seemed to stop at its infancy stage. The reasons behind this failure are vary, but in principle related to the symptoms that some scientist called a "broken linkage" a syndrome in which the forces of modern intermediary fails to performs its functions in linking demos with public affairs.

The paper discusses democratisation practiced in Surakarta, Indonesia, which has been claimed by many experts as a municipality with " best practices " of democratic local governance in Indonesia. Their analyses focus on the actors and claim that participation is a possible way of crafting stable democracy. This participation in turn, they suggest, is a result of decentralisation which thus strengthen local democracy. Presenting the civil society participation and the decentralisation in the city of Surakarta, this paper shows that what actually happens is otherwise. It argues that the rise of popular participation was rooted in contentious local politics. Besides, the constitution of the new forms of popular representation are not supported by, and produced within, a clear ideological framework from the people in Surakarta.

Violence is a political and sociological phenomena. It occurs either horizontally and vertically in many dimensions and characteristics. For years Indonesia has experienced various cases related to violence. Certain kind of violence, such as religion based violence, occurs more frequently and involving state and political interests. This paper discusses about the religion based violence phenomena and shows that religion is often used to justify the action and political interest of certain groups in Indonesia.

Environmental issues has been central in the current global politics and discourse. furthermore, environment has been set as one of the most important global constitution. Environmental issues have created a complex political network across the world. In Indonesia, however, environmental issues have not seen as central in policy making processes. this paper shows how in most of policy making processes environmental issues end up merely with documents  and rhetoric rather than political actions. This paper also argues that "politics should be used to deal with paradox in managing environment: gaining benefit and minimizing risk.

Hyper-centralisation which has been systematically institutionalized during Suharto's rule has been responded with various kind of discontent masked with abandonment of a concept of Indonesia as a unitary state. while the author highly supportive to decentralization policy, there are some dangers to encounter. This article shows the dangers.

Significant development colors the scope of study politic and government. This ranges from the dynamic of government institutions to wider aspects of state, society and market including the relationships of these aspects. The following discusses the dominant discourse of governance in political science and particularly in the study of government.

This article asses the implication of direct local executive election ('Pilkada Langsung') toward deepening democracy in Indonesia. Based on rapid appraisal study on the first wave of 'Pilkada Langsung' in Indonesia during 2005, this paper argues that the free, fair, and non violence process in the series of 'Pilkada Langsung' to some extent indicates a maturity in Indonesian democracy. The weakness on regulations and lack of management skills of local electoral commissions are still major obstacles that prevent further development of democracy. furthermore, this paper suggest that 'Pilkada Langsung' should be placed not only in procedural processes but to promote democracy in a more substantive way and as a strategy to develop effective local governance.

Constitutional reform is one of the most important ways undertaken by some transitional regime for establish a democratic government. This kind of reform has many models. In Spain it is called reforma pactada-ruptura involving "negotiation" among elite, and a "rupture" from the previous regime whose legacy cannot be maintained any longer. The similar model, with different stressing, also took place in Taiwan. As Indonesia is now facing its critical moment in managing political transition following a thirty-two year authoritarian regime of New Order, a comparative study is valuable in giving inspiration on what route should be pondered. One important political decision to be taken is to reform constitution, namely the UUD 1945. Since its broad and open-to-interpretation character and its executive-heavy. the constitution is easily manipulated. Yet, the constitutional reform idea has been critical as its suspiced by certain groups with its concern on the total changing of the law, and also because the law has been merely a sacred text which left no chance to be reformed. This article suggest that the constitutional reform is possible, it is even a must, as long it is  still in the path of the preambule as other country cases had shown how significant the constitutional reform for the process of democratization

Artikel ini menyoroti paket rancangan UU politik baru yang disusun oleh TIm 7 yang dibentuk pemerintah sesaat sebelum kejatuhan Soeharto. Kesimpulan umum yang bisa diberikan adalah, bahwa RUU politik baru ini sangat radikal dalam substansi dan memiliki kapasitas untuk memfasilitasi proses demokratisasi di Indonesia. Sekalipun demikian , ketiga RUU yang ada masih dihantui oleh sejumlah ambivalensi sikap sebagai akibat dari tekanan kepentingan politik tentara, pengandaian yang keliru tentang tentara dan analisis yang dihantui trauma masa lalu tentang potensi disintegrasi nasional dan istabilitas politik yang diandaikan secara keliru bersumber pada kehadiran partai kecil dan partai-partai berbasis lokal.

Pada saat pembentukannya, Komnas HAM dipandang tidak berbeda dengan lembaga korporatis negara lainnya, yakni menjadi agen pemerintah untuk para 'anggotanya', khususnya para aktivis HAM dan meredam tuntutan penegakan HAM di Indonesia yang saat itu terus menguat. Melalui tulisan ini ditunjukkan bahwa Komnas HAM mampu mandiri dari penetrasi pemerintah, dan bersikap kritis terhadap pemerintah dalam kasus politik yang sangat sensitif sekalipun. Sumber energi untuk membangun kemandirian tersebut terutama terletak pada komitmen dan kredibilitas individu anggota Komnas HAM, variasi keahlian dan kases, serta kemampuan untuk mengembangkan  etika organisasi yang kondusif bagi pelaksanaan tugas penegakan HAM. Namun demikian, penulis berargumentasi bahwa demi menjaga komitmen dan kemandirian lembaga, Komnas HAM menghadapi beberapa permasalahan  serius yang harus segera ditangani. Pertama, menyangkut status hukum lembaga ini. Kedua, menyangkut sumber energi yang selama ini masih menekankan pada kapasitas individual. Ketiga, menyangkut perlunya penngembangan mekanisme rekrutmen anggota baru yang lebih terbuka di mana opini publik ikut terlibat.

Current issues and challenges have placed nationalism into a dificult position. This leads to the dichotomy oftribalism and globalism or between fragmentation and integration. In Indonesia, the dipcult position of nationalism may resultfrom the view that nationalism is equal to a political stream, is interpreted internally, is applied to various interests and means anti-foreign investment. This arcticle discusses the requirements to use civil administration and self-conscious patriotism for understanding nationalism.

Metode dan strategi perjuangan untuk mewujudkan cita-cita Indonesia merdeka mengalami perubahan luar biasa pada awal abad 20. Perubahan ini ditandai dengan dimulainya pemanfaatan " organisasi modern " sebagai sarana baru menggantikan sarana-sarana lama seperti " gerakan ratu adil " yang berpusat pada diri dan kharisma seorang pemimpin.

This article aims to show the relevance of the Bandung Asia Africa Conference in 1955 to the current debate on democracy. It argues that the Bandung Asian-African Conference was the second massive but well coordinated democratic movement on a global scale. It has paved the way for the production of new political space globally as well as for individual nations -- space that is more democratic in nature, where people can claim and exercise their citizenship rights. Reflecting on Soekarno’s speech at the opening of the Asia Africa Conference, this article argues that there is an urgent need for a deeper involvement of political and social forces of the Global South to put themselves as the front liners in defining and making use of democracy, instead of leaving it to be dictated by Neo-liberal lines of thinking. This is so because Indonesian experience during the last 15 years or so has clearly demonstrated the very limits of liberal democracy. This article further
argues the need to build a collaborative effort amongst scholars of the Southern Hemisphere to challenge the superiority of liberal ideas and practices of democracy.

Tulisan ini merupakan paparan hasil penelitian yang mencoba mengungkapkan ada tidaknya tautan politik antar-partai politik/parlemen dan organisasi masyarakat sipil dengan kelompok pengrajin batik, serta bagaimana tautan politik terbentuk, siapa yang mengawali, serta implikasinya bagi proses demokratisasi di Indonesia. Dengan mengambil kasus di Yogyakarta, kealpaan politik mengindikasikan proses demokratisasi Indonesia kian berliku. Harapan bahwa demokrasi bisa menjadi instrumen pencapaian kesejahteraan masih membutuhkan kerja sangat keras.

This paper is part of my preliminary research on Parliament-CSO linkages in policy processes in Indonesia. It is aimed to provide basic information on political linkages between parliament as a new created democratic space and CSOs, including the enabling and inhibiting factors in the relation between the two. In more general, it is aimed to generate a clearer picture on the interlinking between “power, space, and place”, paving way for a better understanding on how a new democratic political spaces and places are created, who involves within them and on what basis; and on the dynamic of their engagement within them, implying the dynamic of power relation in specific context. It therefore, moves beyond the existing assessment and descriptions of the state of democracy in Indonesia, focusing on the problem of hijacking, of the hegemony of old power elite, of the working of formal institutions mechanism together with various types of informal networking, of the changing continuities, of the problem of representation, of the need to build political block, and many other labels. Drawing from the research, this paper concludes that the main challenge to Indonesian democracy lies on the absent of democratic linkage; a phenomenon of “broken linkage”.
Combining the “power cube” model of Gaventa with general framework for analyzing democracy of Tornquist and the concept of political linkages, this paper concludes that reformasi has created and multiplied the democratic spaces and places at both national and local arena, enlarging the boundaries for inclusion of CSOs in the decision-making processes. However, within this broader new democratic boundary of national parliament, this paper identifies the presents of a set spaces where all three dimensions of power are working simultaneously, determining the whole course of decision making processes.
Apart from the above mentioned, this paper also indicates that the very nature of CSOs-parliament relationship – as demonstrates through various patterns of their links, has been dominated by a combination of technocratic-based and intimacy-based linkages, hindering the process of democracy to take place. These, in turn, have created an even more complex power relation and longer process for demos to get into public affairs. It does not make demos become more autonomous and have more alternative channels to public affairs. In the contrary, it makes public affairs become a faraway institution to be reached.

Pelaksanaan politik desentralisasi dan otonomi daerah di Indonesia telah melewati tahuntahun yang sangat panjang sejak kali pertama ide ini diintrodusir pemerintahan Kolonial Belanda melalui Decentralisatie Wet 23 Juli 1903 Josef Riwu Kaho, 2012;). Sekalipun demikian, pelaksanaan politik desentralisasi yang bersifat masif dan menyeluruh baru dimulai satu dekade yang lalu menyusul dikeluarkannya UU No. 22 tahun 1999 dan kemudian diubah dengan UU No. 32 tahun 2004. Dalam perkembangannya, UU ini disepakati sebagai skala prioritas DPR dan pemerintah sejak 2010 untuk kembali disempurnakan. Rencana perubahan UU ini bahkan memunculkan tiga rancangan UU berbeda yang hingga awal 2013 ini masih terus diperdebatkan.